After The Expendables firebombed its way to almost three hundred million worldwide, we all knew a sequel was coming as soon as possible. Unfortunately, unlike Saw and other rotating cast films, you can’t just turn out another installment in a year. There’s too many schedules to organize and too much money at stake. Two years though, that’s not a wholly unrealistic goal. In fact, that’s exactly what Stallone and company are shooting for.

The Expendables 2 is set to drop on August 17th, 2012. Most of the original cast has already signed on to come back, and there’s almost a rumor a day of some other big name action star joining the picture. Whether we’ll end up seeing our first taste of Norris or more Willis is all speculation at this point, but with a clear end point in sight, we’ll start getting answers to these questions shortly.

An August release date for an action film isn’t exactly a stretch, but it does seem worth noting that this is just one week after G.I. Joe 2. I would imagine the thought process has something to do with The Expendables 2 being R and catering to an older audience, but it’s still likely these two pictures will cost each other a slight bit of business. I’ll be seeing Stallone break faces, but there’s no telling whether most will follow my lead.