Pacific Rim was a movie that found relatively modest success for a blockbuster of its size and scope in 2013, but luckily for fans, it was enough for Legendary Pictures to justify a sequel. It may have taken a few years, but Pacific Rim 2 is happening and it seems like nobody is more excited about that than Star Wars: The Force Awakens star John Boyega. Sure, he probably loves the first Pacific Rim, but he is playing one of the leads in the sequel and has been regularly sharing teases for Pacific Rim: Uprising on social media. His latest tease gives us a glimpse at one of the Jaegers set to appear in the movie.
John Boyega posted an illustration of what looks to be the Jaeger Gypsy Danger from the first Pacific Rim to his Instagram. Even though it is just an illustration and not an actual, finished image of what will appear in Pacific Rim 2, the picture is plenty to get fans excited for the sequel. Especially since this seems to confirm that Gypsy Danger will once again be going toe-to-toe with some giant alien monsters. The illustration appears to show the famed Jaeger in a docking bay of sorts with a helicopter flying near the robot's knee, to give a sense of size and scale. Despite not even being a color image, it looks pretty impressive.
Since his role as Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, John Boyega has stayed quite busy. He went straight from shooting Star Wars: Episode VIII into shooting on Pacific Rim: Uprising, which is another massive, blockbuster undertaking. He is going to be filling in some pretty big shoes, since he is playing the son of Idris Elba's character, Stacker Pentecost, who died a pretty heroic death at the end of the first Pacific Rim. So, he won't be back for Pacific Rim 2 and neither will Charlie Hunnam, who played the lead in the first movie. However, a recent Instagram post by cinematographer Dan Mindel seemed to confirm that Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day and Burn Gorman would be returning. Additionally, the same photo seemed to confirm that Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny and Karl Urban have also joined the cast.
Details on Pacific Rim: Uprising have largely been kept under wraps, so these little social media teases are pretty much all we have to go on at the moment. Given that the humans managed to seemingly close the Breach at the end of Pacific Rim, it would appear that the problem was solved to some degree. That said, they just closed the breach and didn't actually deal with all of the Kaiju, so it would stand to reason that the creatures are going to find their way back to Earth some way or another, meaning that the world will once again need Jaegers like Gypsy Danger to come to the rescue.
Guillermo Del Toro directed Pacific Rim, but he is not returning in that capacity for Pacific Rim 2. Instead, it is Daredevil showrunner Steven S. DeKnight who will be in the director's chair this time around. Pacific Rim: Uprising is currently set for release on February 23, 2018. Be sure to check out the new picture of Gypsy Danger for yourself below.