Sometimes when sequels are made they don’t often look like the original incarnation of that follow-up from the development stages and the same can be said about Legendary’s haphazard sequel to Guillermo del Toro‘s “Pacific Rim.” There had been an attempt by del Toro to return for the sequel but left due to some studio hijinks that left them without a stage facility to make the film in a timely manner. His exit from that kaiju-vs-robots sequel was a lot more avoidable than you might imagine.

While speaking with Collider recently, the filmmaker revealed that he ultimately didn’t return to make “Pacific Rim 2” because the studio, Legendary, according to del Toro, let their access to stages at Pinewood Studios Toronto (Where the first film had been shot) expire by not paying the deposit needed to hold them and would have further delayed production with the promise that they could simply shoot the film in China. However, del Toro wanted to do location shoots in China after scouting but mainly do that stage work in Toronto. Instead, del Toro passed after the studio lost the stages they needed in Toronto and moved on to his Oscar-winning film “The Shape of Water,” which as you might expect he shot in Toronto alongside Buffalo, New York.

He revealed that Rinko Kikuchi‘s Mako Mori (Adopted daughter of Marshall Pentecost), the female lead of the previous installment was poised to take the reigns from Charlie Hunnam as the lead of del Toro’s version of “Pacific Rim 2.” Along with the aim to get Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen (“Rogue One,” “John Wick 4”) a key role as well. Yen and del Toro had previously worked together on “Blade II,” where the actor had played a member of the vampire black ops team, The Blood Pack, but didn’t last very long in that picture.

“The main character for me in many ways was Mako Maori…I wrote a phenomenal role for Donnie Yen, I wanted Donnie Yen. I wanted Donnie Yen to star in a damn mainstream movie, I was all for [filming in China]. We did scout in China and we were going to do location shooting [in China] but [for] stage I wanted to be in Toronto.”

Legendary decided not to use those actors in del Toro’s desired capacity. Pivoting to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” actor John Boyega playing the never-mentioned son of Pentecost as our new main protagonist. The main leg of the sequel’s production took place in Australia with director Steven S. DeKnight (“Daredevil”) at the helm, making his feature film debut on a rather massive studio film which is infamously a make-or-break situation on such a large project.

Ultimately, “Pacific Rim: Uprising” wouldn’t be as much of a hit with critics or audiences as it only mustered $291 million which was $100 million less than the last movie had made ($411 million). Guillermo also admittedly never ended up watching the version the studio made and made a flowery comparison to “home movies from your ex-wife.” Adding, “They’re terrible if they’re good and worse if they’re bad.” That line got some chuckles from the audience at the Q&A that Collider was hosting.

Just the other day, del Toro had stated that Tom Cruise nearly had a big role in the original film and was wanted for Idris Elba‘s part but it ultimately didn’t work out.

You can watch that full exchange between del Toro and Collider’s Steve Weintraub below.

SOURCE: COLLIDER