Those of us who enjoyed the first Pacific Rim haven’t exactly had an easy past few years. Though a dynamo at the box office in China, Guillermo del Toro’s robots-versus-monsters flick didn’t fare exceptionally well here in America, nor did it garner especial praise from the critical community. As a result, the prospect of a sequel has been somewhat inconsistent, even past the point of official announcement. As such, it’s quite a relief to see tangible proof that a new Pacific Rim movie is coming, both in the form of action figures and a new teaser video, all of which debuted at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.

On today’s Nerdist News, we’re tapping into exactly what we can mine from these first glimpses of Pacific Rim 2, which bumps franchise newbie John Boyega up to the starring position, and seems to shift the position of the first film’s all powerful Jaegers just a tad. Whereas Pacific Rim situated the Jaeger mechanism as a maligned and antiquated piece of military tech, Pacific Rim 2 looks to be assimilating the cyborgs into its future society in a manner none too dissimilar to our own heavily-obsessed-over technologies.

Not only have the Jaeger’s upgraded their role in the Pacific Rim world, but they also seem to have upgraded their gizmos. This time around, we’re looking at a sleeker and more refined brand of Jaeger, as well as features including (if you look closely enough) a H-L-3-Y-3-S-Gravity Sling. If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve been playing a bit of Half Life 3 lately. And that’s hardly the only extra-textual reference planted in the new trailer; the Jaegers’ gun looks a bit too similar to a Half Life 2 gravity gun to be sheer coincidence.

But of course we have much yet to learn about Pacific Rim 2 and its new and improved Jaegers. Let us know what you think of this first look at the sequel!

Editor’s note: This episode of Nerdist News is sponsored by Tor Books.