Several years after the last film, a fourth The Expendables is finally coming. The Sylvester Stallone-led franchise, which features an ensemble cast of action stars from the 80s and 90s and pays homage to the action films released decades ago, revolves around a group of mercenaries composed of veteran soldiers from around the globe.
For years, we’ve heard very little about the next film in the series following 2014’s The Expendables 3 – until now.
Lionsgate has finally broken its silence and announced that The Expendables 4 is coming.
What is The Expendables 4 all about?
According to THR, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Sylvester Stallone, will all return to reprise their roles in The Expendables 4. On top of these four returning cast members, The Expendables 4 will welcome new faces such as Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Megan Fox, and Tony Jaa in new roles.
We’re definitely curious to see how the new Scott Waugh-led installment will handle the departure of some of the original cast members and the inclusion of new ones. This is especially if the reports are true that the film will feature Jason Statham more prominently than previous films with Megan Fox as the female lead.
Speaking of, the inclusion of Megan Fox feels weird, to say the least.
She’s done action films before but nothing that’s quite like The Expendables. It’s also interesting that she’ll take on a lead role after The Expendables 3 already featured former UFC Bantamweight Champion, Ronda Rousey.
The same goes for the rapper, 50 Cent. Meanwhile, the addition of Tony Jaa is definitely a good choice. The criminally underrated action star previously starred in films like the Ong-Bak trilogy. He most recently appeared in 2020’s Monster Hunter, a movie adaptation of a video game of the same name where he starred alongside Milla Jovovich.
The announcement of The Expendables 4 comes on the heels of news that the franchise’s first spin-off, Christmas Story, will start filming in October.
Given the timeline, we suspect that Lionsgate plans on filming both the spin-off and the mainline installment back-to-back. This way, the spin-off can premiere first and help generate enough buzz for the fourth The Expendables film to put it in a better position and become a box office hit. Then again, we don’t think that any film featuring the names commonly associated with The Expendables franchise needs help bringing in a crowd.
With that said, Lionsgate should start announcing more details about Christmas Story and The Expendables 4 in the next few months.
