Filming on The Predator, the highly anticipated fourth film in the Predator franchise (if you include the two Alien vs. Predator movies), is getting underway today, and to mark the occasion writer/director Shane Black has unveiled the first look at the cast. Black, who had a supporting role in the first Predator movie, is tackling a franchise blockbuster for his fourth film as a director following a pristine run of Kiss Kiss Bang BangIron Man 3, and the criminally underseen The Nice Guys, but he’s putting his own signature spin on the material. First of all, The Predator will be R-rated as 20th Century Fox has no doubt been encouraged by the box office receipts of Deadpool to greenlight more pricey films that carry an R-rating. And second of all, this cast is diverse in the best possible way.

Boyd Holbrook leads the ensemble as a soldier of some sort, and he’s joined by Moonlight breakout Trevante Rhodes, Olivia Munn, Keegan-Michael Key, Sterling K. Brown, and the adorable/wildly talented young Room performer Jacob Tremblay. The Predator cast image that Black shared on Twitter (yes, Shane Black is on Twitter!) reveals all of these actors in their costumes, but Black notes that this is only a partial cast photo, so there’s even more to this already formidable ensemble.

When I spoke with Black last year, he clarified that this film is indeed a sequel and not a total reboot of the franchise, but he also noted that this cadre of characters will be somewhat similar to the makeup of the first movie:

“I think it’ll be interesting to get a group of credible guys—the hallmark of the first one is you have guys together that are kinda funny and self-referential and also very tough. I don’t know that we’re going to deviate over much from that, but there are at least a couple of factors that we’ve deliberately chosen to make it not just that group of buff, tough guys."

Check out the mighty exciting The Predator cast photo below. The film opens in theaters on February 9th.

[EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/BonafideBlack/status/833709665410117632[/EMBED_TWITTER]
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Image via Warner Bros.