Has the cast of GI Joe been honorably discharged?

The hiring of Jon Chu(Step Up 2) as the director of the GI Joe sequel signaled a complete change of course the potential franchise. Chu is a younger, more energetic filmmaker, and a devoted fan of the Real American Heroes. He's also less experienced and thus less expensive, a possible cost cutting move to help make the sequel more financially viable than the previous one. Although GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra earned over $300M globally, the $175M budget ate up a large portion of the profits.  One of the reasons the film was so expensive is the large, international cast. So it stands to reason that if cost reducing measures are in order, somebody's not going to make the cut.

We'd been led to believe that the vast majority of the cast was contractually bound to return for the sequel, but now it turns out the vast majority of the cast isn't coming back at all. Rachel Nichols, who played the super hot Scarlett in the film, tweeted some interesting news...

@RachelNichols1 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 would mean Nichols herself isn't returning. It also means Ray Park, Lee Byung-Hun, and Channing Tatum are the only surviving members. Now the question becomes who on the Cobra side will be back. Joseph Gordon-Levitt? Probably not, what with his schedule right now. Sienna Miller's already said she won't return, meaning we won't be getting anymore catfights between Baroness and Scarlett. Color me less interested already. This is starting to look like a relaunch. 

Since you can't run GI Joe with only two soldiers without making it look like the world's worst buddy comedy, Paramount will probably bring in a bunch of less expensive actors to fill out the unit.  Expect a lot of greenshirts this time around around, and maybe a little more emphasis on GI Joe as a United States fighting force(like the cartoon and comic), rather than the international squad we saw before.

Thanks to Slashfilm for the heads up on this story!