Pacific Rim 2, officially titled Pacific Rim: Uprising is currently filming in Sydney Australia and while most of the film's cast have been accounted for, a few expected additions have yet to make their presence known. Back in November of 2014, Guillermo del Toro revealed that both Charlie Day and Burn Gorman would be returning for the sequel, which led fans to expect / hope that Pacific Rim leads Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi would make a return as well. To the disappointment of many, back in July of 2016, Charlie Hunnam insinuated that he would not in fact be returning in Pacific Rim: Uprising, but the return of Rinko Kikuchi's character (Mako Mori) remained on the table.
Today, a few outlets ran with a photo shared to Instagram by cinematographer Dan Mindel, which featured cast names on the side of a camera; Charlie Day, Burn Gorman and Rinko Kikuchi. Oddly enough, Karl Urban's name was also displayed in the photo - but following a report made by SlashFilm, Urban took to Twitter to quickly dismiss the possible news, tweeting: "Hey Peter , No , I'm not part of this project , Look forward to seeing it though." The photo on Instagram has since been removed, but you can view it below:
It is extremely likely that Rinko Kikuchi has secretly been cast, along with Charlie Day and Burn Gorman, as it would line up nicely with what Guillermo del Toro had teased two years ago. The inclusion of Karl Urban, though awesome, would be a complete surprise. His denying on Twitter seems straightforward, but could also be a ploy to avoid spoiling a major casting reveal down the road.
UPDATE (1/10/17): Following our report going live we reached out to director Steven S. DeKnight on Twitter, for confirmation on Rinko's potential casting. DeKnight was kind enough to give us a response, however his answer was a bit cryptic...
As new details concerning the casting for Pacific Rim: Uprising continue, we will be sure to keep you updated.
