The Predator: Benicio Del Toro out, Narcos star Boyd Holbrook in

Schedule conflicts led to him dropping out of the Shane Black project

Earlier this year, word quickly spread across Hollywood trade press claiming Benicio Del Toro would be playing an alien hunter in The Predator.

However, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed the Sicario star is no longer in talks with Twentieth Century Fox.

Instead, the studio is looking to hire Boyd Holbrook, who recently starred in the second series of Netflix’s Narcos. The Predator would mark the actor’s fourth Fox film in recent years, including upcoming X-Men spinoff Logan, Gone Girl, and Morgan.

According to sources at the publication, Del Toro’s heavy schedule led to his departure; the studio had already pushed back filming to February, but other engagements moving around led to his departure from the project.

Iron Man 3 and The Nice Guys director Shane Black will helm the project; ironically, he appeared as the character Hawkins in the original Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He previously said of the film: "Back in the original, there was a real sense of mystery, I thought. And discovery, when this thing came to Earth… We're trying to up the stakes that way; just making it full of ideas and mystery.”

The Predator has a release date of 9 February 2018.