- Sylvester Stallone as Barney Ross:
- Jason Statham as Lee Christmas:
- Jet Li as Yin Yang:
- Dolph Lundgren as Gunner Jensen:
- Chuck Norris as Booker:
- Jean-Claude Van Damme as Jean Vilain:
- Bruce Willis as Mr. Church:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger as Trench:
- Terry Crews as Hale Caesar:
- Randy Couture as Toll Road:
- Liam Hemsworth as Billy the Kid:
- Scott Adkins as Hector:
- Yu Nan as Maggie Chan:
At several stages of development, other actors were pursued for the film. In October 2010, Willis said that Steve Austin would reprise his role as villain Dan Paine. In November 2010, Charlie Sheen was reported to be in consideration for the role of a CIA agent hunting down Willis' Mr. Church. In August 2011, Variety reported that actor and martial artist Donnie Yen was offered a role in the film; however, Yen declined the role because he did not find it intriguing.
In September 2011 Stallone confirmed that he was in talks with Nicolas Cage and John Travolta, and scheduling would be the only obstacle to their involvement. In July 2011 Mickey Rourke was stated to be reprising his role as Tool; by late September it was reported that he had dropped out of the film, and on October 18 this was confirmed. Antonio Banderas was reportedly offered a role, but was unable to participate due to other commitments. Jackie Chan said he had been offered a role, but was forced to turn it down due to scheduling conflicts with Chinese Zodiac.
On his approach to casting, Stallone said that he was looking for actors who had not experienced recent success in film: "I like using people that had a moment and then maybe have fallen on some hard times and give them another shot. So we’re always looking for actors like Michael Biehn and Michael Paré. I like those kinds of guys. Someone did it for me and I like to see if I can do it for them.