Has John Boyega saved Pacific Rim 2? The Star Wars star has been confirmed in Pacific Rim 2’s lead role. On top of that, Pacific Rim 2 will be co-produced by Boyega and Femi Oguns with their Upper Room Productions company. (Might that have provided the funding Pacific Rim 2 needed to move confidently ahead?)
John Boyega, who’s been saving sci-fi as far back as Attack the Block, will be playing the son of Idris Elba’s character in the first movie. Brother to Rin Kikuchi’s Mako Mori? Talk about a bad-ass family.
"I am very proud and happy to welcome John into a fantastic sandbox," said del Toro. "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."
Beset with production stalls and delays, it seemed like Pacific Rim 2 wasn’t even happening for a while. Guillermo del Toro remained stalwart, reassuring fans that Pacific Rim 2 was only delayed, not canceled, despite worrying rumors to the contrary.
Last we heard, the beleaguered sequel had just secured a new director: Steven S. DeKnight, creator of Spartacus as well as head writer and executive producer on Season 1 of Daredevil. “We had a fantastic meeting of the minds,” del Toro said in an interview with HitFix. “We are positive that this is a great choice to take what was established and go beyond!”
Pacific Rim 2 was originally scheduled for an Aug. 4, 2017 release date before being yanked off the Legendary and Universal schedule with no alternate release date yet posted. Hopefully these announcements help lead us closer to a finalized release date for Pacific Rim 2.
