Pacific Rim 2 is moving closer to being a full “rebootquel”. When it was announced that John Boyega would lead the film, that was cause for celebration, but it was curious that no other cast members had been confirmed, especially those from the first movie. While we’ll have to wait and see if anyone from Pacific Rim is coming back for the sequel, we now know at least one actor who won’t be reprising his role.

Speaking to Yahoo! Movies at Comic-Con, Charlie Hunnam confirms that he will not be returning to play Raleigh Beckett in Pacific Rim 2. He says that there was an early draft that featured him heavily, but with the shooting scheduling for Pacific Rim 2, he wasn’t able to fit it in, and so he’ll be unavailable. While he won’t be participating in the round two of the kaiju vs. jaeger mayhem, Humman did say, “I’m very excited about it. I’m glad they’re making it.”

With Hunnam out and Boyega the de facto lead of the new picture (he plays the son of Idris Elba’s character, Stacker Pentecost), it will be interesting to see if anyone else from the first film returns for Pacific Rim 2. I’d like to see everyone else come back, especially Rinko Kikuchi, who made a great impression despite having a limited character. The same goes for Charlie Day’s Newt and Ron Perlman’s Hannibal Chau. Part of what made Pacific Rim 2 such a rich universe was the characters, and while I could do without Raleigh, I liked everyone else.

Steven S. DeKnight (Daredevil) will direct Pacific Rim 2 from a script by Derek Connolly (Jurassic World). Filming will likely begin later this year or very early 2017 for a February 23, 2018 release date.


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Image via Warner Bros.
pacific-rim-idris-elba-charlie-hunnam
Image via Warner Bros.
pacific-rim-charlie-hunnam-rinko-kikuchi
Image via Warner Bros.