Normally these days, Charlie Hunnam is found motoring around the fictional town of Charming, breaking noses and battling with other gangs in ace biker TV drama Sons of Anarchy. But while he’s enjoyed a few decent film roles, he’s stepping up into epic blockbuster territory with Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim.

Written by Travis Beacham, the film finds humanity under attack from angry, giant creatures that threaten to stomp us into the ground city by city. To fight back against the menace, the world’s population must join together to build and maintain highly advanced weapons.

Hunnam is negotiating to play a key role, though Deadline’s story didn’t offer details about what that role would entail besides him being a pilot of one of the vehicles battling the beasts. We expect there’ll be a lot of shouting at massive monsters involved, so it’s a good thing he’s gotten to practice by having arguments with Ron Perlman. In fact, it’s not hard to imagine the once and future Hellboy (a del Toro favourite) putting in a good word for his TV stepson.

GDT, of course, switched to working full time on Rim when his Lovecraft adaptation At The Mountains of Madness sunk back into the mire of limbo thanks to budget concerns at Universal. The monster movie, however, seems to be striding along quite happily with Warner Bros. and Legendary.

Hunnam will next be seen in religion-fuelled adultery drama The Ledge and quirky viral video comedy drama Frankie Goes Boom with Chris O’Dowd.