While things began moving forward to some degree earlier this year with a change in director, the sequel for Pacific Rim has just gotten a boost in the “must now get made” category. According to Deadline, John Boyega has joined the project to take on the role of the son of Idris Elba’s character from the first one. No other casting has been revealed at this point but with production set to begin in the fourth quarter of this year, we’ll be hearing about more now that this is being locked down – and a very good get for Legendary.
“It is undeniable that with all his talent and natural charm, John stands out amongst today’s generation of young leading men,” said Parent.
Said del Toro: “I am very proud and happy to welcome John into a fantastic sandbox. The Pacific Rim universe will be reinforced with him as a leading man as it continues to be a multicultural, multi-layered world. ‘The World saving the world’ was our goal and I couldn’t think of a better man for the job.”
As talked about previously, there has been a range of issues in getting the sequel to Pacific Rim going, which includes the whole shift of studio for Legendary from Warner Bros., where they made the first, to Universal Pictures, who are wary of big budget productions. While the film previously saw its spot on the 2017 calendar removed and pre-production halted last year, writer/director Guillermo del Toro has continually said that the film is not dead and that he’s pushing hard for it among the large slate of projects that he’s involved in.
We learned earlier this year that Steven S. DeKnight has taken over as the director for the film. DeKnight has a huge resume of projects he’s worked on over the years, largely in TV, and got a lot of acclaim for stepping in and handling Daredevil. He was also the creator behind Spartacus, which in its first season was simply amazing.
DeKnight’s boadring the project that will have a script from Jon Spaights, whose script for Doctor Strange is currently being filmed.
