John Boyega will lead Legendary Pictures’ upcoming sequel to “Pacific Rim,” which Steven S. DeKnight is directing.

To be titled “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” filming is set to to run through early 2017 for a February 2018 release. This second film in the franchise created by Guillermo del Toro (who directed the first film) and Travis Beacham, will see Boyega play the son of the character that Idris Elba played in the original 2013 film, which grossed $411 million worldwide ($300 million was from overseas).

The plot for the sequel has been kept under wraps for now. The first film was set in the future, with Earth at war with the Kaiju – monsters which have emerged from an interdimensional portal on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. To combat the monsters, humanity unites to create the Jaegers, gigantic humanoid machines, each controlled by at least two pilots, whose minds are joined.

Thomas Tull, Mary Parent, Jon Jashni, and del Toro are producing the action adventure film along with Boyega and Femi Oguns under their Upper Room Productions shingle.

Said del Toro: “I am very proud and happy to welcome John into a fantastic sandbox. The ‘Pacific Rim’ universe will be reinforced with him as a leading man as it continues to be a multicultural, multi-layered world. ‘The World saving the world’ was our goal and I couldn’t think of a better man for the job.”

Boyega will next be seen with Tom Hanks and Emma Watson in “The Circle.”

He is repped by WME and Identity Agency Group in the UK and Hansen Jacobson.

Check out more pics from the set below: