Although we've already seen a ton of footage and publicity materials for Jeff Wadlow's 'Kick-Ass 2,' Universal Studios brought the title out for its Comic-Con 2013 panel on Friday, July 20.

When we last saw junior assassin Hit-Girl and young vigilante Kick-Ass, they were trying to live as normal teenagers Mindy and Dave. With graduation looming and uncertain what to do, Dave decides to start the world’s first superhero team with Mindy. Unfortunately, when Mindy is busted for sneaking out as Hit-Girl, she’s forced to retire -- leaving her to navigate the terrifying world of high-school mean girls on her own. With no one left to turn to, Dave joins forces with Justice Forever, run by a born-again ex-mobster named Colonel Stars and Stripes. Just as they start to make a real difference on the streets, the world’s first super villain, The Mother F%&*^r, assembles his own evil league and puts a plan in motion to make Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl pay for what they did to his dad. But there’s only one problem with his scheme: If you mess with one member of Justice Forever, you mess with them all.

The film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Jim Carrey, and will be released August 16.

“I feel like I won the fanboy lottery,” said Wadlow after taking the stage, followed close behind by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. Also joining them were stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who were introduced to the crowd through sizzle reels complete with footage of Kick-Ass and The Motherf---er in action.

For Johnson, one of the footage highlights was a shot of him performing one-arm push-ups – shirtless, of course. So how does Johnson get his abs of steel? “I’ve been training with Hit-Girl,” he said. Mintze-Plasse said later on that those scenes were real and praised the actor’s physical preparedness.

“It’s been four years since we did the first one,” said Johnson. “Physically Chloe has changed. What’s nice about my character is that he hasn’t changed at all.”

Mintz-Plasse, however, had to adapt a much darker change to his character. “I was really scared to do something this intense, but Jeff had a great acting coach,” who essentially helped him work out all the intricacies of The Motherf---er. “I’m wearing like a gimp outfit,” he said. “It’s super dark. There were some things in the comic book we took out, which was murdering a dog and raping someone … Other than that, it was very dark.”

Although Hit-Girl, Chloe Grace Moretz, couldn’t be at Hall H in person, she joined via telecast while in Boston.

As she said, her character, Hit-Girl, has a very “big, interesting arc” that plays out partly in high school. As she describes, Mindy gives up her life of crime and attends high school. But even there, she finds a new kind of crime. “Whether it’s a drug dealer on the streets or a bad girl … she has to bring justice to the situation.”

“All she has is herself,” she continued. “Her really only friend in the world is Dave … That’s why they have this special bond. That’s how she’s able to grow up, [through him].” In this film, moreso than in the first installment, “you need to see who [Mindy] is … There’s something behind all the layers … there’s a little girl in there that lost her dad and doesn’t have the power to stand up and face what’s happening in her life … She’s completely lost in her own self.”

One of the more clear differentiations between the two films are the new cast members -- Lindy Booth, Donald Faison and John Leguizamo were the three new representatives from that crowd on stage.

Shortly after walking out, Wadlow presented the new Comic-Con-exclusive ‘Kick-Ass 2’ trailer. “It’s gonna be online later, but I think it’s gonna be slightly dirtier.” Among the highlights of this extended look were some memorable moments from Hit-Girl -- practicing shooting Kick-Ass with multiple guns, slicing off a criminal's hand, and we also got to see a fuller look at her tussle with the villains on the moving van. “There were about 300 curse words cut out of there,” said Mintz-Plasse.

The footage also highlighted all the villains, including Mother Russia. According to Wadlow, “we did a global search for Mother Russia and I had to go to some very questionable sites to find out candidates … She doesn’t speak English.”

Now what about ‘Kick-Ass 3’? “I love these characters and I’ve been so focused on this movie and I haven’t even thought about it.” In the second, he said he wanted to push these characters as far as he could, and all of his attention has been on that.

And before the panel ended, Donald Faison left us with one reminder: “The one-arm push-up sh--. That’s real dog.”

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