In an interview with Collider  director Guillermo del Toroprovided a status update for Pacific Rim 2.

We got the first draft of the movie now, and we are going to spend another 4-5 months on the screenplay before we start pre-production.  We start pre-production next year in August-September and start shooting November-December next year.

The film is scheduled for release on April 7, 2017. Travis Beacham is continuing on as writer along with Zak Penn (The Avengers). We can also expect an animated series set in the Pacific Rim universe between the first and second films.

As reported previously,  the sequel will maintain the spirit of international cooperation in the previous film with a diverse and “multicultural” cast. While there is still no official word on which characters from the first film will return in the sequel, del Toro promise that “some of your favorite characters come back, some others don’t… some characters come in at the end of the second, hoping that it will ramp up on the third one.” So it seems we may get not one but two Pacific Rim sequels.

Before anyone gets their hopes up too high, keep in mind that del Toro had also hoped to make Hellboy 3 and those plans do not seem to have gone anywhere. The only recent news on that front came from actor Jeffrey Tambor who said on The Colbert Report back in September, “There is actually talk of Hellboy 3, but they better hurry or I’m gonna be in a walker.” (skip to 4:45) Hopefully del Toro will have better luck with this franchise.