Hmm, I’m sort of have a few theories? There’s the film I fear we’ll get, there’s the film I think we’ll be lucky to get, and the film I don’t think we’ll get and if we did it probably would be the actual death of me. 

1) Pacific Rim 3 is just a Rampage-style monster movie fest about the invasion of the Anteverse starring Jake and/or a random new cast AGAIN and the plotline from the first two films is just further ignored, including closure for Newt. I don’t actually think this will happen but it’s sort of how I’d ground myself rather than get too excited were PR3 to be announced. 

2) What I think is the most likely scenario. PR3 features Jake and is about the invasion of the Anteverse. Hermann is puttering around in the background somewhere and we get some references and a shot of Newt screaming his head off like the kid from the Exorcist in a cell somewhere. Then, just as all hope seems lost because they need intelligence about the Anteverse in order to launch the Big Finale Attack, Newt shows up miraculously cured and delivers the needed info. He and Hermann get one more scene before the end of the film, piloting a Jaeger or something ridiculous lol and no deeper meanings are explored in the film other than finding increasingly ludicrous ways for robots to beat up monsters. But at least Hermann and Newt are together and better! (This film instantly becomes option 1 if one or both of them die and I will officially flip the fuck out). 

3) Newt and Hermann actually get the B Plot of the film! Look, there’s no universe in which I think a story like TOWOID (which is technically envisioned as a PR4) or any of the other numerous wonderful Newt recovery arc stories is going to make it to the big screen or that Newt’s recovery will be A Plot. Pacific Rim is, at its heart, a movie about monsters fighting robots and it’s going to be about improbably good-looking hot-shot pilots getting in robots to do just that. If we’re very lucky there will be some bigger themes at stake about war and loss and climate change and saving the world. Frankly, I’d be over the moon even if the A Plot is just an action movie, if the B Plot is Newt and Hermann and they get to carry some of the heavier themes, but again, this isn’t the film I think we’ll ever get just the one I’d love. One where wresting Newt out of the Anteverse actually takes a bit of time and we get some trippy glimpses of the place through his eyes and some idea of what’s been HAPPENING to him, where he gets to come back a hero, and we get some confirmation of Newt/Hermann maybe not with a kiss but I’ll take the Hollywood approximation of no no-homo girlfriend showing up and a clear portrayal of them as each other’s most important person without whom they fall apart. Maybe some hand holding (ooh la la!). 

As for how I’d write it? I’d probably open with Mako waking up in a hospital and use her as the vehicle to introduce us to how the world has changed in the inevitable time skip since PR2. I’d throw Raleigh back in too if I could, hell, get the whole crew back together including Tendo and Hannibal Chau off somewhere! Show the war is about to be launched, maybe introduce the idea that no one really knows anything about the Anteverse except one man (dun dun DUN) and it’s up to Hermann to bring Newt back to his senses so they can get that info to launch the invasion maybe? The whole shot of Newt throwing open the doors to some super secret war meeting to announce that he’s there to help, etc etc… Lots of themes of redemption and kicking ass. But that’s all wish list stuff, honestly if it was ever announced my first question would be WHO IS DIRECTING before I’d get ANY kind of hopes up. And I realize the question is more about what film I’d make if I could but I just can’t shrug off the inevitabilities of Hollywood enough to even begin to explore the art house film I’d make about Newt’s rescue and recovery ;P Basically if you want to see those, just read my fics. That’s my take on the story.