The panel for The Expendables 2, the upcoming sequel to the surprise 2010 crackerjack action film which was written by and stars Sylvester Stallone, made an appearance in Hall H at the 2012 San Diego Comic Convention today.

The testosterone alpha male laden panel, comprised of Stallone, MMA champ Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Dolph Lundgren and actor cum politician cum actor again Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The restless crowd was impatient before the lights went down and the panel was introduced. Finally a trailer from the film was shown, which seems to have even double the action as the first. The men were then introduced one by one to thunderous applause. First Stallone, introduced from a collective “Yo Adrian” from the crowd and followed by a montage of his cinematic career on the large viewing screens placed throughout the hall, asked how he felt about doing all those actioners after so many years. He replied simply, “ouch.” Honored that he was able to resurrect a genre from those ’80s action flicks, he spoke about the tone and the style of keeping the sequel as good as the first film, and talked about the new upcoming production.

He then introduced the rest of the cast. Before Ah-Nold came out, they showed a montage of his work in cinema as well and the hall exploded with applause when he was introduced. Schwarzenegger joked about who was the bigger action star, him or Stallone, and how he still had killed “one more” person in the sum total of his productions than Stallone had done in his. The crowd ate it up as Arnold looked sharp, was jovial to boot, and was charming and looked extremely pleased to be back in his old stomping ground in cinema, with Stallone.

He also traded funny barbs with Old Spice pitchman and ex-NFLer Terry Crews, who said that he could now “die in peace” of having worked with Arnold, who assured him to please not “take it the wrong way.” Ah-nold also joked that Sly was his English teacher when he first came to America 44 years ago, and Sly responded by saying that the two of them should have a “spelling bee.” All in all, the entire panel was gregarious and witty, and a good time was had by all, with clearly Ah-nold stealing the show.

Bizarre Q&A commenced with a man dressed as Jedi Knight complimenting the panel which led to Ah-Nold thanking the audience for their support and saying that they couldn’t do it without them, an Arnold impersonator did a nice impression of him which saw the genuine article crack up, a pair of twins in ET shirts asked Ah-nold about a sequel to Twins, in which he exclaimed “It’s Not A Tumor!” and “Who is Your Daddy and What Does he Do?”

Stallone was asked if all five men on the panel had a fight, who would win. His response was “Who has the best lawyer?” In answering a question to Stallone what his favorite Ah-nold film was, he replied jokingly, Junior, and that Ah-nold’s would be Stallone’s mess of a production Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot. But he then seriously mentioned that it was Terminator 2.

A few more questions commenced, another clip was shown and then Arnold was presented with the Comic-Con Inkpot Award which celebrated his career in cinema, and he noted how humble he was to receive an award when he came from an era when it was more about being cerebral and intellectual as a movie star than a muscle bound hero, which was his cinematic stock in trade. It ended what was clearly the highlight of today’s festivities in the first day of Comic-Con, in the famed Hall H.

Panel Photos

All photos by Dave3