Pacific Rim will be the first film del Toro has helmed since Hellboy II: The Golden Army in 2008.

The director lived up to the wild cheers that had greeted him in the hall (in Spanish and English alike) by making a promise to his fans: “It is my duty to commit to film the finest f---ing monsters ever committed to film. And secondly – I make the pledge to create the greatest f---ing robots ever committed to film.”

That was of course met with even more cheers.

If Pacific Rim plot details were what fans were looking for, Comic-Con 2011 wasn’t the place to find them. Del Toro, who was accompanied by cast members, said he “can’t divulge” the concept of the film just yet, adding, “It’s something we need to keep sort of in secrecy.”

He did reassure the crowd that the film will strive to answer “everything as fans, as geeks, as just curious minds that we ask about monsters” before wrapping up with an apology for sounding “ambiguous and haiku-ish.” He'll have plenty of time to clarify at next year's Con ahead of the film's July 12, 2013 release (which, intriguingly, could fall on the first night of the 2013 Con...).

Other films spotlighted at the panel were Sergey Bodrov’s The Seventh Son, Alex Proyas’ Paradise Lost and the film adaptation of the action role-playing game Mass Effect. The Seventh Son’s cast in attendance boasted Bridges (greeted the only way he ever should be greeted at such an event – with calls of “Dude!”) as well as Ben Barnes. Proyas presented striking concept art of both Heaven and Hell for his Bradley Cooper-starrer. The Mass Effect film is in the very early stages, but Legendary still delivered with a new trailer for the Mass Effect 3 game, due out in March.