Mickey Rourke decides he’s Expendable after all, won’t be back for Expendables 2

Living up to the title, Mickey Rourke will be absent from THE EXPENDABLES 2, the explosive extravaganza currently shooting with CON AIR director Simon West.

According to Deadline, Rourke’s rubbery mug will be otherwise occupied making the dark crime comedy SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS with Colin Farrell and his IN BRUGES writer-director Martin McDonagh. They also say that Rourke “did the first film as a favor to director Sylvester Stallone, but it doesn’t sound like there was a big financial incentive to return for a reprise on the surprise hit.” (Or perhaps just not a big enough paycheck to justify spending some chilly months in Bulgaria rather than LA.)

Then again, it’s quite possible that Rourke’s EXPENDABLES 2 role wouldn’t have been very big even if he did want to do it — the initial synopsis released by the production company revealed his character’s death: “The Expendables are back and this time it’s personal! After Tool (Mickey Rourke), the heart and soul of the Expendables, is brutally murdered on a mission, his comrades swear to avenge him. They’re not the only ones who want blood. Tool’s beautiful young and wild daughter Fiona embarks on her own revenge mission, complicating matters when she is captured and ransomed by a ruthless dictator plotting to destroy a resistance movement. Now Barney and the Expendables must risk everything to save her and humanity.”

Still, there are plenty of other macho dudes assembling on screen for the sequel — Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Terry Crews, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Liam Hemsworth, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins, and possibly even Nic Cage and John Travolta.

The carnage begins on August 17, 2012.