With production on Shane Black’s The Predator starting early next year, the writer/director has been given an update on what we can expect from the film.

The last word we’d heard on the movie was that Narcos’ Boyd Holbrook was stepping in to replace Benicio del Toro, who’d had to rule himself out of the project due to his busy schedule. Other than that, all that we knew was that The Predator would take place in the same continuity as Predator and Predator 2, and that there’d been talks with Arnold Schwarzenegger for Das Arnold to return as Dutch in some fashion. Now, Black has been talking to JoBlo about the project.

On Boyd Holbrook boarding the film, he explained how he’d spent some time with the actor and “he’s just marvelous, he’s amazing.”

Discussing the movie itself, Black explained that it “has to stand on its own two feet, but our goal is to make sure it acknowledges that, yeah, it is 30 years later in the continuity of the story. In other words, Dutch Schaefer’s patrol, which was attacked and largely slaughtered, happened 30 years ago in the context of the story. It’s referenced, it’s part of the mythology. In that way, it’s more of a sequel than a reboot.”

Speaking to Collider, he revealed the current production plan, saying, “Right now we’re looking at probably beginning to mid-February. I’m heading up to Vancouver in a week or two to go into a serious pre-production, so we’re on the cusp.”

As well as Boyd Holbrook being signed up, there’s recent speculation that James Franco may nab the lead of the film, Quinn McKenna. Black has put the screenplay together with Fred Dekker, and the current release date for The Predator is February 9th, 2018.