'Pacific Rim 2' lands 'Spartacus' man to direct

Steven S. DeKnight, creator of Starz' hit "Spartacus" and producer on a clutch of other action-oriented TV series, will direct "Pacific Rim 2."

As a creator and then producer he was behind the three season run of "Spartacus," having also served in a producer's capacity on Joss Whedon's "Angel" and "Dollhouse," Superman adaptation "Smallville," and most recently Marvel's Netflix collab "Daredevil."

As a director, he's been credited with helming a combined total of 9 episodes shared between "Angel," "Smallville," "Dollhouse" and "Daredevil," but the team behind "Pacific Rim 2" -- including the original's director and co-creator Guillermo del Toro -- were evidently impressed enough with his chops.

At one point, Del Toro had been in place to film in 2015 for a 2017 release; though no new date has been announced, Universal Pictures is still on board as distributing studio.