New Expendables 3 hard men Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford and Kellan Lutz join veterans Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone in posters for action sequel

It is a film franchise which teams nearly every Hollywood action hero imaginable in a group of elite mercenaries.

And now Mel Gibson, Kellan Lutz and Harrison Ford have joined the Expendables gang, with a collection of new posters for the third film showing them in a variety of tough guy poses. 

Lutz, more familiar to fans of the Twilight franchise, poses in bullet proof vest over army fatigues and holding a gun behind his back.

The 29-year-old actor plays a character called Smilee, the leader of a team of young mercenaries similar to the Expendables.

His group ends up clashing with the older tribe led by Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone).

However, he and his tech-savvy team members eventually join forces with Barney and the gang to fight ruthless arms dealer Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson), who makes it his mission to put an end to the Expendables.

Gibson is also featured in the new posters, sporting a black jacket and jeans in a guise reminiscent of his Lethal Weapon days. 

But Harrison Ford is left sporting a rather less fetching all-in-one suit and is given no weapon to brandish in the poster. 

The Indiana Jones star was cast last year, replacing Bruce Willis who appeared in the first two movies.

'WILLIS OUT... HARRISON FORD IN  !!!!  GREAT NEWS !!!!!  Been waiting years for this!!!!' Stallone tweeted at the time.

The star also hinted that Willis asked for more money when he followed up the tweet with another that read: 'GREEDY AND LAZY ...... A SURE FORMULA FOR CAREER FAILURE.'

It had been claimed that Bruce had demanded $4million to appear in the film, which worked out to be a fee of a whopping million per day.

Ford plays Max Drummer, who has been described as the manager of The Expendables in the film.

'I'm playing a character that is an authority figure,' Ford told Movieweb.com. 'He creates an assignment. He manages the Expendables, and he has an interesting relationship to the character Sly plays. 

'While I am involved a little bit in the action, not so much. Its an interesting character, and I didn't know Sly before. It was fun.'

Antonio Banderas, Kelsey Grammer and Wesley Snipes have also been added to the latest sequel of the popular franchise.

Olympic medal-winning Judo fighter and Mixed Martial Artist Ronda Rousey and welterweight boxing champion Victor Ortiz are onboard too, both featuring in the posters sporting protective battle gear.

The original The Expendables came out it 2010 and grossed over $100 million. While the 2012 sequel, The Expendables 2, drew in $85 million.

To find out what happens in The Expendables 3 you'll have to wait until the summer, when it opens in cinemas on August 15, 2014.

By ELEANOR GOWER