‘Expendables 2′ Is Going to Feature a Lot More Willis and Schwarzenegger

We started our day with some minor "Expendables 2" casting news, but we're ending it with a much bigger tidbit. Deadline is hearing that two new names have signed on for the sequel: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis. Yeah, they were in the first one, but apparently they'll have much more "substantial" roles in the follow-up film. Whatever that means.

In "The Expendables," director and star Sylvester Stallone resurrected his career by bringing back lesser or fading action stars like Jet Li, Steve Austin and Dolph Lundgren for one big blow-out action movie. Schwarzenegger and Willis were in it, too, but their roles were essentially cameos. (This is the extent of their NSFW onscreen team-up from the first film.) It appears that their parts -- respectively, as a leader of a team of rival mercenaries and some CIA muckety-muck -- will be much more integral to the new movie, which makes some sense since the first film's surprise $274 million box office haul will be a lot harder to duplicate without some additional star power.

What's funny is that for both Schwarzenegger and Willis the assumption was that their small parts in "The Expendables" were because neither of them saw their careers as needing a boost. Schwarzenegger was still governor of California, and Willis had hits with "Live Free or Die Hard" and (right after "Expendables'" release) "Red." You could say that their agreement to be in the sequel means that they now see the series as a possible help to them, as opposed to something they did as a favor for their old Planet Hollywood buddy. How quickly things change: Of the three of them, Stallone's career seemed most dire a little over a year ago. Now he's the guy with the most recent $100 million hit to his name.

'Expendables 2′ Sets Action Dream Trio: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis Join Sly Stallone [Deadline]