When director Guillermo del Toro first announced Pacific Rim 2, the sequel to his 2013 robots-vs-monsters cult hit, it was a cause for massive celebration. Pacific Rim 2, despite receiving only mixed reviews and doing so-so at the box office, had an enormous fanbase that was slavishly devoted to the franchise. When the sequel was announced, they had everything they had ever wanted.

Except, there might be one person who's not so excited for Pacific Rim 2: Rinko Kikuchi, star of the original film. Because while she'd love to star in the upcoming 2017 sequel, chances are she might not get the chance to. It may be the case that director del Toro is swapping out the cast for an entirely new one, when the sequel comes.

When asked about her prospects for Pacific Rim 2 in a recent interview, here's what Kikuchi had to say. " I hope I will be in it, but I haven't heard anything about Pacific Rim 2." Later, the Japanese actress added, on the subject of director del Toro: "No, I think he wants me to be in the movie, but I'm not sure. There's a lot I cannot talk about."

It's important to note that del Toro has mentioned, previously, that he's considering leaving major cast members out of the next Pacific Rim film. Specifically:

"All I can say is some of your favorite characters come back, some others don't because we have decided that we're going to shoot ambitiously and say 'Let's hope we have three movies,' so some characters come in at the end of the second, hoping that it will ramp up on the third one."

And if that is the case- and the sequel has an entirely new cast- it lends Pacific Rim 2 some interesting story options. It could be a prequel, or a sequel set farther into the future, or from the perspective of the alien homeworld seen at the end of the first film. The possibilities are endless- unless you're Rinko Kikuchi, of course.

Pacific Rim 2 premieres on April 7, 2017.