Is ‘Pacific Rim’ in the same universe as Godzilla?

Now, isn’t this THE question of the century? After all, there are way too many similarities — secret organizations, monstrous Kaijus who are defeated with the help of outside aid, etc. Coincidences are fine, but Pacific Rim and the MonsterVerse film series have way too many parallels.

So, is Pacific Rim and Pacific: Uprising set in the MonsterVerse – existing in the same universe that is home to the formidable Godzilla and King Kong? Well, the answer is both no and almost yes.

No, because technically the two franchises — the Pacific Rim universe and the MonsterVerse, both produced by Legendary Pictures — despite having many themes that are similar to the point that they might come across as being identical, are not co-related and don’t have any connection with each other… yet.

If the directors of the first two films in the Pacific Rim universe could have managed to get their way, the two universes would have had a crossover event binding them already. When the trailer for Godzilla vs. Kong came out in January 2021, Pacific Rim director Guillermo del Toro was quick to point out how the story of his film could easily co-exist in the MonsterVerse and shared hope that the characters of each franchise might have one “rumble” together.

Stephen S. DeKnight — who directed Pacific Rim: Uprising — has confessed that had Pacific Rim 3 managed to see the light of day, it would have embraced the long-standing hopes of Godzilla facing off against Jaeger by ending on a note that would have “married the two universes.”

Pacific Rim and MonsterVerse could still join forces

Though Uprising’s dismal box office returns effectively canceled the plans for a sequel and its animated series, Pacific Rim: The Black, concluded its two-season run at Netflix without establishing a substantial link to the equally chaotic Godzilla-Kong Land, we still have the upcoming Apple TV Plus series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (set to feature Kurt Russell, Wyatt Russell, and Anna Sawai) to turn to when it finally debuts on the streamer.

How can the two universes be connected? Well, we will leave the long-term, widespread planning to the brainiacs over at Legendary, but simply confirming that the portal on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean seen in Pacific Rim (through which the Kaijus poured in) was just an open entrance on some part of the Hollow Earth (Godzilla vs. Kong) would do the trick.