With Pacific Rim 2 getting the official green light from Legendary, Guillermo del Toro has been discussing what we can expect from his sequel to the monsters vs. robots smash.

“I’m hoping to bring the same idea I had in the first movie.” says the director. “That was to make it multicultural and humanistic as much as possible, to make characters from many nationalities or genders, to make them equal in the scope of the adventure, in the day-to-day of the adventure.”

“So, we’re bringing a few characters that are new,” he continues, “and hopefully doing good work managing those that survived the first movie.”

“We had to sacrifice many aspects to be able to cram everything in the first movie. Namely, for example ‘the Drift’, which was an interesting concept. [Then there was] this portal that ripped a hole into the fabric of our universe, what were the tools they were using?”

Sounds like the cogs are already turning in the famed Del Toro imagination, with the director hoping that the two films will work together both as sequels and standalone films.

“I don’t want to spoil it,” he says, “but I think at the end of the second movie, people will find out that the two movies stand on their own. They’re very different from each other, although hopefully bringing the same joyful giant spectacle. But the tenor of the two movies will be quite different.”

Pacific Rim 2 will open in the US on 7 April 2017, with a UK date to be confirmed.