Guillermo del Toro had been busy filming The Shape of Water, his supernatural Cold War drama, in Canada. But the filmmaker tweeted a couple days ago that production was officially wrapped. So, now it’s on to his next project: Pacific Rim 2.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens actor John Boyega announced the first day of filming on the sequel over Instagram and confirmed its title, Pacific Rim: Maelstrom, a name that has been rumored for some time. Boyega portrays the son of Idris Elba’s Stacker Pentecost, who died at the end of the first film. Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Jing Tian, and Levi Meaden also star, while del Toro previously teased “a lot of the cast from the first movie is coming back.”

john-boyega-attack-the-block
Image via Sony

Del Toro isn’t directing Maelstrom. That job will be completed by Steven S. DeKnight from Marvel’s Daredevil series, but it’s based on a concept del Toro created with the original screenwriter Travis Beacham with a script by Derek Connolly (Jurassic World). Del Toro will also produce the film with Thomas Tull, Mary Parent, and Jon Jashni.

Plot details are unknown, but del Toro has been talking about possible treatments since before the first film hit theaters. Since the sequel involves Stacker’s son, we can assume it’s not the Kaiju origin story treatment. During an interview with Collider back in 2014, the filmmaker said of Pacific Rim: Maelstrom:

It’s a few years after the first one.  It’s not an immediate follow-up.  It is the world having been freed of Kaiju, what happens to the world after – what happens to the Jaeger technology once the Kaiju are not a threat.  It’s quite a jump.

It’s been quite the journey to make a sequel a reality, but the franchise garnered a bit of a cult following. Pacific Rim earned more than $101.8 million in the U.S. and performed well overseas, yielding a worldwide total of $411 million.

Pacific Rim: Maelstrom is scheduled for release February 23, 2018

https://twitter.com/stevendeknight/status/796475866037383168
First day on Pacific Rim today. Here's to a great adventure ahead ✌ A photo posted by BOYEGA (@jboyega_) on
https://twitter.com/stevendeknight/status/796476433975496704
pacific-rim
Image via Warner Bros.
pacific-rim
Image via Warner Bros.
pacific-rim
Image via Warner Bros.