Pacific Rim was on of those popular films that it seemed we'd never actually see a sequel to. And yet, here we are with the film finally in production. In case you needed proof, we know have an image of John Boyega in his Jaeger driving uniform. It's not an official image, but instead, it appears to have come from somebody who is checking out the location.
The picture was shot by a resident of Sydney, Australia, where Pacific Rim 2: Uprising is currently filming. Shot from a distance, it's clearly somebody who is at the location, but being kept back while they film. The user, tessalucyy, isn't even that sure that the person she got a picture of is the film's star John Boyega. However, it certainly looks like him, and he's wearing an outfit similar to those we saw in the first Pacific Rim being worn by the Jaeger pilots.
Over the summer we learned that John Boyega would be adding Pacific Rim to his franchise collection alongside Star Wars. While we don't know much about the new movie, we do know that Boyega will be playing a character who is the son of Idris Elba's character from the original film. Elba played Stacker Pentecost, the Marshall in charge of the Jaeger force in the original film. While Pentecost sacrificed himself in that movie, it appears he left at least one biological child alongside his adopted daughter Mako Mori.
Beyond John Boyega himself, there is one other thing of note in this image, which would be the series of green balls set on the ground in the other lane next to Boyega. Those appear to be markers set in place for digital effects, meaning that when and if we ever see this moment on the screen in Pacific Rim 2: Uprising, it won't necessarily look anything like what we see here. Boyega could be walking past a massive Jaeger, or they could be replacing the street he's walking on with another one entirely, made up of different buildings that will be created inside a computer. About the only thing we can know we'll see for sure will be John Boyega and his uniform.
This image not being everything it appears to be, fits nicely with the film as a whole, as we have little idea what it's really going to look like either. While the movie is a sequel to the original Pacific Rim, the cast is going to look almost entirely different when compared to the original. None of the leads from the first film will be back. As it stands, the connection between John Boyega's character and Idris Elba's character is the only link to the original film that the new one will have. While this is slightly disappointing, as pretty much everybody who loved the first film would want to see Rinko Kikuchi again, it does create the opportunity to tell entirely new stories that aren't necessarily tethered to the original.
Pacific Rim 2: Uprising is set for release on February 23, 2018.
