I'm guessing Boyega's character was too young to be robot fighting during Pacific Rim, which could explain his absence.
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
So what, this is a sequel now?
I mean, I'm up for it, but I'm kinda disappointed this pretty much means that they failed to finally defeat the Kaiju once and for all.
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Well, there always Godzilla.
Rock on, Gold Dust Woman
Godzilla could mop the floor with the Jaegers. He's the king of the monsters for a reason.
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Screaming Into The Void
Yeah, there's any number of reasons they could use to explain him not being in the first one. Regardless, I'm pretty happy about the casting news. Plus this confirms to me that the movie is actually going to happen.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Maybe it's new monsters from a different alternate dimension. Just kidding. Probably.
edited 6th Jun '16 5:48:49 PM by Pseudopartition
John Boyega's about 10 years younger than Rinko Kikuchi so (if the age difference between them is the same) he would have been a kid or in his early teens at most during the first movie.
Absolutely no relation to NLK
Awesome, I liked his performance in TFA.
Dopants: He meant what he said and he said what he meant, a Ninety is faithful 100%.
LEGENDARY GALE
John Boyega's decent enough. I'm okay with this.
Still dunno what it could be about, though. More Kaiju would undermine the first film.
Maybe Jaeger vs Jaeger tournaments or wars?
but HOW?
John's more than decent enough, he's fucking phenomenal. And I say this as someone who's seen both TFA and Attack the Block. Dude's a great actor and I'm glad he's rising up.
edited 6th Jun '16 8:30:08 PM by higherbrainpattern
He showed some charisma but I feel he's yet to truly shine. Maybe Pacific Rim 2 will be his chance.
He's no Idris Elba, but a "WE ARE CANCELLING THE APOCALYPSE!" would do him wonders.
"All you Fascists bound to lose."
LEGENDARY GALE
I can actually imagine him yelling that quite easily. That's a good sign. :D
BTW, I had a random thought- Pacific Rim: Mobile Fighter G Gundam edition.
but HOW?
The Master of Tediousness
Now that think about it, John Boyega playing Pentecost's son makes me think when back when people thought Pentecost was the Gendo Ikari of Pacific Rim. I wonder if there's going to be an estranged relationship between the two in the movie?
With a '0', not an 'O'
Oh I hope not, that'd be so predictable/cliché. Plus one of the cool things about Stacker in the first film was that he WASN'T that way with Mako. He was overprotective of her, but you understood why he was that way and there was never any doubt/question that he deeply cared about her.
No need to throw a "distant father/son with daddy issues" cliché into the mix I think.
The Master of Tediousness
Unless I'm reading this conversation wrong, didn't Gendo Ikari treated Rei better than he did Shinji?
But yeah, the estranged relationship would be cliche anyways.
edited 7th Jun '16 6:45:42 PM by KZN02
With a '0', not an 'O'
Maybe Stacker wanted to be that way to his son, but his son was going through a jerk phase he had to grow out of.
Or Stacker thought his son was dead from one of the Kaiju attacks, and said son was happy to let him think that because he didn't think there was a realistic chance of winning and decided to enjoy the world while it was still around without having a dad who kept trying to get in contact with him about "Son, you know I love you, right? Come back home and let me give you a hug." and "Son, remember that you always have a home wherever I am." and "If I did anything to upset you, son, please call me back so we can talk it over."
Maybe Stacker kept his son THE HELL AWAY from Kaiju, while he was growing up.
What would that mean for his relationship with Mako? That he trusted her to drive a Jaeger more? That she did a better job of wearing him down on the issue? Was it just younger/second child syndrome in play?
But he didn't want her to pilot, she was an engineer to begin with. It was kind of a big thing, Raleigh wore him down as well. And there are any number of ways to explain it I think.
Did you know this section has a character limit?
Or maybe Baby Pentecost just didn't want to be a Jaeger Pilot.
They do have medals for almost, and they're called silver!
True, or he just didn't show a natural aptitude for it at the time perhaps. Mako and Raleigh could be mentors, in that regard maybe.
edited 8th Jun '16 12:58:48 AM by Punisher286
LEGENDARY GALE
It'd make some sense if Pentecost's son wanted to honor his father by taking on his job, despite not personally wanting to be a pilot.
but HOW?
The greatest cereal ever made
.
$4,000,000,000,000,000 per box.
I don't think that's supposed to be cereal. 
I'm pretty sure this film is a sequel.