After the panel for 24: Legacy at today’s TCA Fox network session, star Corey Hawkins answered questions about some of his other projects, including Kong: Skull Island. Before that though, the 24: Legacy producers praised Hawkins’ charisma in the panel, and talked about how he naturally makes people care about his characters. Hawkins also spoke about how excited he was to play a character like the 24 reboot’s Eric Carter, because (as he put it) there aren’t many black heroes who don’t have superpowers. The series was also called an origin story for Hawkins’ Eric becoming an agent.

But of course, Hawkins has another action-oriented project coming up with Kong: Skull Island. When I asked him if he was able to tell us the name of his character, he seemed surprised that we didn’t know it (and was then stopped before he could tell us, of course). It seems like it’s important to the story somehow, but for now, he did tease more about this mysterious character:

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Image via Warner Bros.

“I can’t say the name of the character, but I can say that he is a young geologist. You know, the movie is set during the Vietnam War era, and he’s a young Yale graduate who is on this adventure, this trip to this island that hasn’t been discovered yet. And again, it being set during the Vietnam War era, you can’t just go on Google and go ‘Oh the island actually is there!’ This is a time where people were still discovering certain parts of our worlds and cultures and things, so that myth and mythology is still there. And he’s very much a part of that myth and mythology, and trying to put a rhyme and reason to the goings on.”

When asked about the tone of the movie, and what we can expect there after the second trailer (which changed things a lot from the first), Hawkins said,

“The tone of the movie is the tone of the set. There were serious undercurrents of shooting this film, and then there was shooting with these guys — you’ve seen the cast — it was one of those journeys. And I got to work with Jason Mitchell again, which was in Compton with me, and it was one of those journeys where we got the opportunity to find the light moments. It can’t be all serious at all times, and I think in our darkest moments you have to find the humor and the lightness. I think that’s something with Eric Carter that we’re finding on [24: Legacy], where it’s a little different from the 24 that we knew. I mean, there’s not a lot of time for humor, but sometimes humor is necessary to get you through. It’s honest.”

Kong: Skull Island also stars Tom Hiddleston, John Goodman, John C. Reilly, Tian Jing, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, John Ortiz, Thomas Mann, Shea Whigham, Toby Kebbell, and Eugene Cordero. Kong: Skull Island opens in theaters on March 10, 2017.

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Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via Warner Bros.