John Boyega earned himself many fans with his performance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and now those fans have yet another interesting performance to live up to. It has been confirmed that Boyega has been cast as the lead in Pacific Rim 2. He’s going to play the currently unnamed lead role in the movie, but it’s known that the lead role is the son of Stacker Pentecost, who was played by Idris Elba in the first film.
Franchise creator Guillermo Del Toro, who also happens to be the director of the first Pacific Rim film, said that he’s “very proud and happy” to welcome John into the world of Pacific Rim.
“The Pacific Rim universe will be reinforced with him as a leading man as it continues to be a multicultural, multi-layered world,” he added, saying that he couldn’t think of a better man for the job.
All this is well and good, but so far it hasn’t been confirmed if other cast members will be returning to star in the new film, though many believe that Rinko Kikuchi and Charlie Hunnam, protagonists in the first film, will return.
The press release sent out today confirming Boyega’s lead role mentions that filming on Pacific Rim 2 is slated to begin later this year.