‘Pacific Rim Uprising’ Dominates The Box Office, Charlie Hunnam Wanted Back For Third Movie, Director Confirms
Pacific Rim Uprising made a big splash in theaters over the weekend, coming in first at the box office. While fans were happy with the franchise’s latest offering, many were left wondering about Charlie Hunnam’s character, Raleigh Becket. Will Hunnam return to action in Pacific Rim’s next movie?
According to CBR, fans were disappointed when Hunnam didn’t reprise his role as the Kaiju War hero in Pacific Rim Uprising, especially considering how Raleigh played a big role in the original movie.
Although we all expected Hunnam to reprise his role in the sequel, the Sons of Anarchy star was forced to back out due to scheduling conflicts. Fortunately, the sequel hinted that we could see Raleigh in the next movie.
Raleigh isn’t mentioned a lot in Uprising. We do know, however, that Raleigh is alive and well, he just wasn’t involved in the second fight against the Kaiju. Jake (John Boyega) mentions how the last pilot of the Gipsy Avenger is employed with the United Nations.
We can only assume that this is a reference to Raleigh, who piloted the original Gipsy Danger before it was upgraded. Raleigh also has a history with the United Nations, so it makes sense that he would pursue a career with the organization.
The only other mention of Raleigh is during Jake’s speech to the Rangers before going to war against the new Kaiju. Jake drops Raleigh’s name as a source of inspiration for the fighters. But those are the only two mentions of Raleigh in Uprising.
The good news is that Raleigh isn’t dead and could reappear in future films. If that happens, Hunnam would likely star alongside Boyega in the next movie, which would surely be a huge hit with fans.
Pacific Rim Uprising was directed by Steven DeKnight and stars John Boyega, Cailee Spaeny, Scott Eastwood, Jing Tian, Zhang Jin, and Adria Arjona. Charlie Day, Rinko Kikuchi, and Burn Borma reprised their roles from the first film.
No word yet on whether or not plans are in the works for a third movie, but DeKnight is up for creating a script that revolves around Hunnam’s character.
“There was a version that was shot where what happened to him [Raleigh] was explained and talked about. We tested it, but people had more questions. We decided we didn’t want to lock ourselves in and say Raleigh is dead or Raleigh has retired, which seemed a little cheap,” DeKnight explained, per a report from the Black Hills Pioneer. “We wanted to leave it open for the third installment of the movie in case we can get Charlie Hunnam back.”
DeKnight went on to explain that the only reason Hunnam didn’t star in Uprising was because of a scheduling conflict with the film Papillon. Hunnam had already committed to starring in Papillon when production delays made it impossible to work on both projects.
"Pacific Rim Uprising" beats "Black Panther" with tepid $28M at U.S. box office https://t.co/MMlmdD8oYx pic.twitter.com/JisHgl8Sro
— billboard (@billboard) March 25, 2018
We can only hope that Charlie Hunnam’s schedule frees up whenever the third Pacific Rim comes along so we can finally see Raleigh back in action.
