John Boyega has already cemented his sci-fi future by signing on for Pacific Rim 2 and at least two more Star Wars movies (unless Finn never wakes up from that coma, which would be a shockingly grim twist), but even an actor as talented as he is can’t survive on big-budget sci-fi spectacles alone. Thankfully, Boyega has just joined the cast of Kathryn Bigelow’s next high-profile drama, which probably won’t feature any aliens or robots. Probably. As we’ve previously reported, Bigelow’s film will actually center on the 1967 riots in Detroit, which lasted for five days and were nearly as violent and destructive as the 1992 L.A. riots, with a new press release noting that the film will focus on the “systemic racism in urban Detroit.” Also, Zero Dark Thirty and Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal will be reuniting with Bigelow for the yet-untitled film.
That’s pretty much all we know, as the aforementioned press release doesn’t have any information about Boyega’s character. The film is set to premiere in 2017, though, so Bigelow should probably start settling on some of these details.