Only three characters will return for G.I. Joe 2

Only three characters from the original G.I. Joe movie will return for the upcoming sequel.

Last week we heard that Jon Chu ( Justin Bieber: Never Say Never ) was directing G.I. Joe 2 , and now original star Rachel Nichols has confirmed that only three characters will return.

Nichols, who played Shana 'Scarlett' O'Hara in The Rise of Cobra , tweeted to say: "GI JOE 2 News Flash: The only characters to return in the JON CHU directed sequel will be SNAKE EYES, STORM SHADOW, and DUKE..."

So that means Channing Tatum (Duke), Lee Byung-hun (Storm Shadow) and Ray Park (Snake Eyes) will be back, but apparently Nichols, Marlon Wayans and many more won't be.

It's no shock that Duke'll be back, and Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes made effective, symmetrical adversaries (they were even gifted a bit of back story).

The original was bloated with an excess of characters, but Nichols' announcement makes it sound like Cobra guys Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Christopher Eccleston won't be back, despite the first movie being dedicated to their rise.

Or perhaps Nichols was just referring specifically to Joe team members, but even then, that suggests Dennis Quaid's General won't be back.

Streamlining the sequel can't be a bad idea though, and Gordon-Levitt and Eccleston were unashamadely hammy in their roles (it's hard to imagine that Gordon-Levitt would actually want to go back, seeing as he's recently been linked to The Dark Knight Rises ).

We're still approaching the sequel with trepidation, although it'd have to go some to be quite as dull as the first one.

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. 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.