In 2010, critics and audiences alike ooh’d and aah’d at Machete, a character Danny Trejo had been playing since 2001’s Spy Kids. Finally garnering his own movie, Machete was a definite success for writer/director Robert Rodriguez, who shot the film in the neo-grindhouse format that was made popular (again) by 2007’s Grindhouse, a collaborative double feature by Robert Rodriguez, who did the first film, Planet Terror, and Quentin Tarantino, who did the second film, Death Proof.

In between the movies were fake, or supposedly fake, previews of upcoming films, one of the films being Machete. Others included Hobo with a Shotgun, which has since been made into a film, as well as Don’t, Thanksgiving, and Werewolf Women of the SS. Reports of production for Thanksgiving, which is being directed by Hostel creator Eli Roth, were recently confirmed and is set to release sometime in either 2012 or 2013. The first spawn of the original Grindhouse, though, was Machete, and the sleeper hit of Spring 2010 is getting a sequel entitled Machete Kills.

Rodriguez is working with producer Alexander Rodnyansky from AR films, and the sequel is the first in a planned trilogy, with the hopes that Trejo will reprise his role for the upcoming two films. Rodriguez says, “The fan response to the Machete character has been fanatical since his first appearance…Machete is truly a super hero and Machete Kills will be bigger and more ambitious than the first time.” He also has hopes that the surviving characters of the first film will make the decision to return again for the next two sequels.

Kyle Ward has written the first draft of the script, which is set to be developed by Robert and Marcel Rodriguez. The film is a Quick Draw Production with production by Aaron Kaufman and Iliana Nikolic, and Sergei Bespalov and Rick Schwartz. Production is slated to begin in April of this year.

Not much is known about the plot thus far, but Deadline.com released a report stating: “The new film finds Machete recruited by the U.S. Government for a mission which would be impossible for any mortal man. Machete must battle his way through Mexico to take down a madman cartel leader and an eccentric billionaire arms dealer who has hatched a plan to spread war across the planet with a weapon in space. Machete takes on an army in an effort to dismantle a plan for global anarchy.”

If Machete Kills is anything like the original, count me in.