With Alien: Covenant due next year, Fox’s other big ’80s monster franchise is also set make a return. The Predator is scheduled for a 2018 release, co-written and directed by Iron Man 3‘s Shane Black. It has now been reported that Benicio Del Toro is under consideration to join the film’s cast.

According to Deadline, the star of last year’s acclaimed Sicario is in "early talks" for the movie. While this is far from a done deal, the decision to approach Del Toro is in line with Black’s earlier comments that casting the film correctly was extremely important.

Speaking to Den of Geek in May, Black said: "I think the tone shifting is important. This one is going to be very scary if I get it right, and hopefully also there’ll be some humour in it. The first one had humour in it, so you really got engaged with this group of guys.

"We’ll cast very carefully. We’ll get a group of people against the monster that I think you’re gonna enjoy spending time with."

Del Toro is also known for playing the Collector in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as films such as Inherent Vice and Sin City. He won an Oscar for Traffic and will appear in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII.

Black himself appeared in the original Predator, the 1987 smash starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and directed by John McTiernan. To date there have been four further films in the series, including the direct sequel Predator 2, two Alien vs. Predator movies, and 2010’s Robert Rodriguez-produced Predators.

The Predator is set to be released on March 2, 2018.