We just emerged from a packed full Hall H at the San Diego Comic Con, where we and some 6,000 fans just witnessed "male pattern BADness" as Sly coined the term! Arnold, Sly, Terry Crews, and Dolph Lundgren gave fans some entertaining jabs at each other, nostalgia for the good ol' days, hints of the future, and cool new footage from EX2! What more could you want? We even got to ask Arnold a question about King Conan!!
The panel started out with some cool montages of first Sly and then Arnold's careers. Arnold made his grand entrance after his montage to a rousing standing ovation from the pumped crowd, saying "I'm back!" Then Sly and Arnold got into some good natured jokes at each other's expense like the good old days! Arnold said he is still so competitive with Sly, that when he watched the montages, he thought, "Sly just killed 288 people, but I killed 289!" He also said when he came to America, Sly was his English teacher. Sly thought Arnold's name was ridiculous and when they met it was like, "Congratulations, I hope you fail!" Arnold also joked at his own expense, saying he didn't think it would be hard to return to acting since critics never thought he could act anyway. Arnold actually gave a BIG compliment to Terry Crews, saying that when they worked out together on Crews' first movie, he complimented his bodybuilding, which prompted Crews to say "I can die now! Arnold likes my muscles!"
The panel was bookended with a new trailer at the beginning, and part of a scene at the end where Van Dammes team gets into a massive fight with the full Expendables team at the airport. There WERE some great Arnold lines we hadn't heard yet, though we won't spoil them here quite yet to keep some surprises for the movie.
Finally, there was of course some fan question time, and our own Randy Jennings was second in line, between a Jedi and twins... seriously. First he wished Arnold, Sly, and Crews a happy birthday, then he prompted Arnold to let the fans know if he is going to do KING CONAN! Arnold's answer was simply:
"Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the women!"
He did not elaborate beyond that, but, to us, that seems like a subtle way of saying "stay tuned" and gives us great hope that this movie is still possible! Conan will definitely be back on fans' minds now!
The actual twins asked, appropriately enough, about the Twins sequel. Arnold said that he's interested in doing it, Ivan Reitman has also shown interest, and it still needs a writer. He noted comedy is his next favorite thing after action and pulled out a rousing "It's not a tumahhh!" to cap off that question.
A woman asked Sly and Arnold what were each of their favorite movies of the others', to which Sly said "Junior" and Arnold said "Stop or my Mom will Shoot!" Then joking aside, Sly admitted to loving T2 and Arnold says he admires Sly's franchises, that each is better than the last. He also complimented Sly's paintings, and said "He doesn't want me to talk about it because of the IRS."
At the end, Arnold was presented with an Inkpot award for his contributions to pop culture and film on behalf of San Diego Comic Con, to more BIG applause, and then it was done! What a fantastic panel that got fans even more pumped for EX2 and hope that King Conan is still alive! Stay tuned for more from Comic Con right here!