Oh man, our favorite tentpole movie to report on “G.I. Joe 2: Cobra Strikes” — mostly because we love looking up the character backgrounds given to these toys — has founds its villain.
THR reports that Ray Stevenson, who gets a call anytime a genre film is being made in Hollywood, will play Firefly, the main baddie in the upcoming sequel. Stevenson is probably best known for starring in the lead role of “Punisher: War Zone” and who also popped up as Volstagg in “Thor” and will be playing Porthos in “The Three Musketeers.” Quick, to Wikipedia! As it turns out no one actually knows Firefly’s real name but he’s a bad ass ninja master, an expert in explosives (as long as they are approved by NATO) and if you want to hire him for a job, don’t send him a check — just deposit the money in his Swiss bank account (though how he opened a bank account without a name is beyond us).
Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson head up the cast with Stevenson joining Lee Byung-Hung, Ray Park, Adrianne Palicki, Elodie Yung, RZA and D.J. Cotrona in the sequel that has scrapped most of the cast from the previous film. There’s no mention of Bruce Willis who was one of a few thesps being sought to play General Joe Colton but we figure that role will be locked down soon enough.
Nothing says Hasbro toy war quite like Louisiana, and that’s where the film will shoot later this summer with a August 10, 2012 already penciled in. Go Joe!