John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) has been cast as the lead in Pacific Rim 2, according to Variety.  The film, now set for a 2017 release, seems to be moving forward more rapidly after a lot of fits and starts.  Stephen DeKnight was brought in as director in February (see "End of February Geek Movie Round-Up"), after producer (then director) Guillermo del Toro tweeted that the budget and script had been submitted to the studio last November (see "Geek Movie News Round-Up").

Boyega will play the son of the Idris Elba character from the first Pacific Rim.

Activity also recently picked up on Monsterpocalypse (see "Warner Bros. Wins Bidding War for 'Monsterpocalypse'"), another Hollywood kaiju production (based on the Privateer game).  An earlier development effort stalled as Pacific Rim sucked all the kaiju oxygen out of the room.  It will be interesting to see if history repeats itself.