Ray Stevenson is villain Firefly in G.I. Joe 2: Cobra Strikes

It's fair to say that G.I. Joe didn't enjoy a great deal of critical love.

By rights, nobody should be getting too excited about the prospect of a sequel, but the cast that director Jon Chu is putting together is pretty hard to ignore.

Ray Stevenson, most recently seen as Volstagg in Thor , has joined the cast as villain Firefly.

Stevenson has starred in Punisher: War Zone and The Other Guys , but he's still best known for his role as rowdy soldier Titus Pullo in TV show Rome.

He joins Channing Tatum and Dwayne Johnson in the sequel, as well as the recently cast Adrianne Palicki. Bruce Willis' name has also been bandied about, but his involvement remains a rumour.

The movie is further distanced from its predecessor by the fact Tatum seems to be the only cast member returning (although Lee Byung-hun and Ray Park have also been mooted to be coming back).

Here's hoping that G.I. Joe 2 can deliver some more impressive action, a leaner plot and, in the form of Stevenson, a more threatening villain than the limp first instalment managed.

G.I. Joe 2: Cobra Strikes is expected to arrive in summer 2012.

Matt Maytum
Editor, Total Film

I'm the Editor at Total Film magazine, overseeing the running of the mag, and generally obsessing over all things Nolan, Kubrick and Pixar. Over the past decade I've worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+, and you can often hear me nattering on the Inside Total Film podcast. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.