After surviving some bruising critical reactions to do decent business at the box office, it was an all-but foregone conclusion that Sylvester Stallone and the surviving members of the Expendables cast would be back for another round of shoot-outs, explosions and banter trading. And now the teaser trailer has arrived online.

This really is the definition of a tease, since it only really features one complete moment, with Bruce Willis’ Mr Church explaining to Sly’s Barney Ross just how he owes him and why he’s now come to collect. The rest? A series of shots of the cast with their names slamming into the screen.

So what are they up to this time? Well, if it really matters to you, Ross and the rest of the gang – Jason Statham’s Lee Christmas, Jet Li’s Yin Yang, Dolph Lundgren’s Gunnar Jensen, Randy Couture’s Toll Road and Terry Crews’ Hale Caesar are joined by new recruits Billy The Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and Maggie (Yu Nan) gear up when Church sends them off on what should be a simple mission.

But, wouldn’t you know it, things take a turn for the worse and one of their number is savagely killed. Which leads to everyone else heading off on a mission of vengeance in hostile territory with the fate of the world (thanks to a rogue package of weapons-grade plutonium) in the balance. Oh, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is also back, with Chuck Norris and John Claude Van Damme as new arrivals for this one. So much testosterone!

Simon West is behind the camera, and we expect it to arrive around the same time as the US release on August 17, 2012.