Guillermo del Toro didn't direct the “Pacific Rim” sequel for a very silly reason

Big blockbuster movies might seem like they're deeply removed from a typical day job. But in some ways, they're just like any other 9-to-5.

Guillermo del Toro showed just how mundane the water that turns the wheel can be in a recent interview with Collider. The Oscar-winning director said he didn't helm the sequel to his 2013 hit Pacific Rim due to what was essentially a clerical error.

"We were getting ready to do it, it was different from the first, but it had a continuation of many of the things that I was trying to do," Del Toro said. "Then what happened is — I mean, this is why life's crazy, right? — they had to give a deposit for the stages at 5 p.m. or we would lose the stages in Toronto for many months. So I said, 'Don't forget, we're going to lose the stages,' and 5 o'clock came and went, and we lost the stages."

Everett Collection 'Pacific Rim: Uprising'

Transitioning to plan B wasn't so easy for the Pan's Labyrinth filmmaker. He continued: "They said, 'Well, we can shoot it in China.' And I go, 'What do you mean we?' [Laughs] 'I've got to go do Shape of Water.'"

The Shape of Water earned Del Toro his first Oscar for directing, but it did mean giving up the director's chair for Pacific Rim: Uprising, which would eventually be directed by Steven DeKnight (known for his work on Netflix's Daredevil). Uprising received middling reviews, having boiled the original film down to giant robots punching giant monsters. A third movie was never made, though there was an anime series released on Netflix in 2021, Pacific Rim: The Black.

Still, Del Toro has never been interested in revisiting the wound. "I didn't see the final movie, because that's like watching home movies from your ex-wife," he said. "It is terrible if they're good and worse if they're bad, or the opposite. You don't want to know."

EW has reached out to Legendary Entertainment, which produced the Pacific Rim movies, for comment.

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