Many of Guillermo del Toro’s films appear to be genre exercises wherein he indulges in remaking the types of movies he loves watching. With “Crimson Peak,” del Toro seemingly wanted to prove that he could make a Hammer Studios-style horror film. With “Nightmare Alley,” he explored film noir. And with his 2013 sci-fi film “Pacific Rim,” del Toro clearly just wanted to play around with kaiju movies. 

The premise of “Pacific Rim” is a little oblique. In the near future, an interdimensional rift opens up at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, and building-sized monsters begin stepping through. To combat the kaiju, humans construct equally large robots that can be piloted by humans. The machines are so complex, however, they require two pilots to simultaneously wire their brains directly into the circuitry. It’s like a high-octane version of Stuart Gordon’s “Robot Jox.” The film was a hit, making $411 million at the box office. 

The sequel, “Pacific Rim Uprising,” was released in 2018, but this time without del Toro’s creative input. Instead, Steven S. DeKnight, directed and co-wrote, with del Toro serving as producer. “Uprising” wasn’t as complex as del Toro’s film, but the action was clearer, and it was overall just more fun to watch. Del Toro didn’t direct “Pacific Rim Uprising” because he didn’t want to wait through a studio sale, and he was eager to get to his next movie, “The Shape of Water.” 

Indeed, del Toro never even watched “Uprising.” He admitted as much in a 2023 interview with Collider. Del Toro didn’t like the idea of seeing a new filmmaker muck around with characters he brought to life. If the film sucked, he would wince. If it was great, he’d wince more. He avoided the issue by just keeping “Uprising” out of his sight.

It should be noted that Guillermo del Toro completed and released “The Shape of Water” the year before “Pacific Rim Uprising” hit the big screen, so he was wise not to wait. “The Shape of Water,” a love story between a mute janitor and an amphibious gill-man, went on to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. By the time “Uprising” was released, del Toro was already in the early stages of production of his next film, “Nightmare Alley.” It seemed that he was very much past any desires to go back to “Pacific Rim.” 

About “Uprising,” though, he was cold. He was familiar with the script, and as mentioned, he did produce the film. But actually watching it would have been too emotionally fraught. If the film was bad, it would tarnish his movie. If it was good, the first “Pacific” would look bad in comparison. He said: 

“I didn’t see the final movie because that’s like watching home movies from your ex-wife. It is terrible if they’re good and worse if they’re bad, or the opposite. You don’t wanna know. So, I didn’t see it. I did read the final script, and it was very different. Some of the elements were the same but very different.”

The simile about watching movies with an ex-wife was apt, as del Toro divorced his first wife in 2017, only a few months before the release of “The Shape of Water.” Maybe his personal life had him pondering the nature of separating himself from an old artistic work. He doesn’t go into any kind of personal details, however, in the Collider interview. 

“Pacific Rim” was eventually adapted into an animated series, “Pacific Rim: The Black,” in 2021.