THE EXPENDABLES 3 was a bit of a financial disappointment, making less than its predecessors and nearly bombing at the domestic box office – but it still did well enough thanks to international ticket sales. Writer/star Sylvester Stallone seemed determined to course correct with THE EXPENDABLES 4, which was also announced as being the final film in the franchise… but then things fell apart.
Last March, Stallone dropped out of THE EXPENDABLES 4 over disagreements with producer Avi Lerner, with reports saying that the pair "could not find common ground on a new director, on the script and on certain qualitative elements of the film." According to an insider who spoke to Deadline, Stallone and Lerner "often disagree and eventually work it out over a couple of cigars". While it looked like they weren't going to work things out this time, Lerner held on to hope.
And apparently he was right to. Just under a year later, Stallone has made it Instagram official: The Expendables team is coming back for another film… and will be joined by a couple new members.
Presumably this means that Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Terry Crews will be back, since they were in all three films with Stallone. Wesley Snipes, Kelsey Grammer, Harrison Ford, Glen Powell, Antonio Banderas, Victor Ortiz, Ronda Rousey, Kellan Lutz, and Jet Li are possibilities as well, and maybe even Bruce Willis, unless Stallone has still written him off as greedy and lazy. It'd be good to see Mickey Rourke come back, too.
It's always interesting to watch the casts of these films come together, and I know a lot of fans have actors they really want to see share the screen with the Expendables. Personally, I’m hoping that Nicolas Cage will work his way into one of these films.
THE EXPENDABLES 4 had originally been expected to film, partly in China, two years ago for a 2017 release. We'll let you know how things go for it now that it has been revived.