It’s been seven years since the Expendables were last seen on the big screen, and given that the entire concept of the franchise largely revolves around recruiting aging action heroes, the chances of a fourth installment appeared to be getting slimmer and slimmer, with Randy Couture the only member of the core ensemble who regularly talked it up as a genuine possibility.
In fact, it was the UFC legend who claimed earlier this year that The Expendables 4 was on track to shoot in the fall, but nobody took much heed when he’d said pretty much the exact same thing back in 2018, only for nothing to come of it. However, Sylvester Stallone has now teased that Barney Ross could be getting the band back together for another adventure, which you can check out below.
The Expendables 3 was hardly a fitting way for the series to bow out, with the box office being severely affected by a pristine copy of the film leaking online weeks ahead of the release, while Stallone admitted the decision to refit the gloriously over the top action franchise as a PG-13 endeavor designed to draw in a bigger audience was a mistake, something every fan would definitely agree with.
As the creator, leading man, writer and occasional director, hearing straight from Sly that The Expendables 4 is back on the table at long last is very good news. Now it’s just a question of wrangling together the cast, and the effects of the pandemic from both a logistical and safety perspective may present problems for reuniting 75 year-old Stallone, 54 year-old Jason Statham, 58 year-old Jet Li, 61 year-old Dolph Lundgren, 58 year-old Couture, 53 year-old Terry Crews and 74 year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger in the same place at the same time, although they all keep themselves in great shape.