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It took a little bit of TLC, but a Pacific Rim sequel is finally headed our way next year. While Guillermo del Toro, who helped originate the first film with writer Travis Beacham, departed the director’s chair for the sequel in favor of an executive producer role, Steven S. DeKnight (Daredevil Season 1) is at the helm of Pacific Rim Uprising. The sequel looks to expand the franchise in a number of ways, with John Boyega playing the new protagonist, the son of Idris Elba’s Stacker Pentecost.

We saw in the first trailer for Legendary and Universal Pictures’ Pacific Rim Uprising that the kaiju threat is far from extinct, but Legendary may have even bigger plans for the Pacific Rim franchise after a third movie in the series. Legendary is currently building out its Monster Universe with Godzilla and Kong: Skull Island in the can, Godzilla: King of the Monsters in post-production, and Godzilla vs. Kong in development. But might the jaegars and kaiju from Pacific Rim cross over into the Legendary Monster Universe and take on Kong and/or Godzilla?

This question was posed to DeKnight by Collider’s own Steven Weintraub during an interview at New York Comic-Con a few weeks ago, and the filmmaker revealed that this crossover notion has very much been discussed:

“I won’t say there’s an Easter Egg but there’s been a lot of discussion about that possibility [of crossing over]. Look I think it would be fantastic to have the Pacific Rim universe join Legendary’s Monster Universe, it seems like a natural step. And part of the big overall plan after the third movie we’ve talked about is that could happen, it’s always a possibility. It’s by far not a certainty; it’s merely theoretical at this point, but as a fan myself I would love to see that happen.”

Adam Wingard (Death Note) is currently set to direct Godzilla vs. Kong for release in 2020, but it definitely sounds like that team-up film won’t be the end of the Legendary Monster Universe. If Pacific Rim: Uprising is a hit when it’s released on March 23, 2018, it sounds like there are plans for Pacific Rim 3, which would then possibly lead into a proper crossover. And indeed, later on in our interview with DeKnight, he says the ending of Pacific Rim: Uprising plants the seeds for a third installment: