John Boyega has been cast in the sequel of sci-fi robotic hit Pacific Rim.
It was announced today that John Boyega will star in the sequel to Pacific Rim, which is one of the most underseen, secretly quite good blockbusters of recent years. According to Deadline, Boyega will be playing the son of Idris Elba’s character Stacker Pentecost, who for obvious, mortality related reasons, will not be appearing in the sequel.
Guillermo del Toro, who directed the first film and will produce its sequel, said: ‘I am very proud 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.’
I love this casting! It’s been a while since I last saw Pacific Rim, but now I really want to revisit it, if only to check if it was ever mentioned that Stacker Pentecost had a family (at the moment I’m leaning towards no). Boyega’s great, possessing easily as much charisma as Elba, if not more.
Anyone who saw him when he broke out in Attack The Block can attest to the fact that he’s as great at dramatic, withdrawn masculine figures as he is playing comedy (which he did superbly as Finn in The Force Awakens). Whilst I’d love to see him doing fewer blockbusters this early on, I doubt if there is a more interesting one for him to appear in. This is not Boyega’s only new project, however, as he is also starring in the upcoming sci-fi film The Circle, alongside Emma Watson and Tom Hanks. There’s no release date or trailer for that project, making it much more of an unknown quantity.
The Pacific Rim sequel has taken a long time to come close to happening, with del Toro planning to direct it, then not, with the studio succumbing to financial difficulties. Currently, Stephen S. DeKnight is slated to make his feature film debut by directing the sequel, and he’s also had experience directing some of the bigger TV shows recently – executive producing the first season of Daredevil and Spartacus, amongst several others.
Pacific Rim’s sequel is expected to be released late in 2017. Watch the trailer for the original below.
