The latest casting news for director Steven S. DeKnight's PACIFIC RIM: MAELSTROM, the sequel to Guillermo del Toro's 2013 kaiju vs. mecha movie PACIFIC RIM, continues to imply that it's going to be up to a bunch of quite young characters to cancel the apocalypse this time around.
So far we know that the sequel will star John Boyega (who will be playing the son of the character played by Idris Elba in the first PACIFIC RIM), Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Jing Tian, Levi Meaden, Adria Arjona, Ivanna Sahkno, and Rahart Adams. Joining them is 23-year-old actress Shyrley Rodriguez (pictured above), who recently made her screen acting debut on the Netflix series The Get Down.
Not only will the film have a large amount of youthful actors, but its story also has "a strong connection to China" according to Jack Gao of the Chinese company Wanda, which purchased PACIFIC RIM production company Legendary Pictures at the beginning of this year. This connection is confirmed by the casting of several of Jing Tian's fellow stars from China: Zhang Jin, Wesley Wong, Lily Ji, Chen Zitong, Lan Yingying (pictured below), Qian Yongchen, and Xiao Yang. There will also be a cameo by Korean actor Kim Jeong-Hoon.
Young people and a connection to China, that's really all we know about PACIFIC RIM: MAELSTROM at this point. However, the long-awaited follow-up is finally filming, so we can probably expect details to be revealed as it goes along. As proof that this movie is indeed happening, I have included a picture of John Boyega on set at the bottom of this article.
The kaiju vs. mecha rematch is set to reach theatres on February 23, 2018.