Don’t expect the forthcoming fourth “The Expendables” movie to be the end of the franchise, according to its backers.
The new film sees Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, and Sylvester Stallone reuniting from the previous entries and are joined this time by Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, and Andy Garcia.
The project is seen as something of a changing of the guard with Stallone’s role minimised as Statham will essentially be set as the new lead. “Expend4bles” producers Kevin King-Templeton and Les Weldon recently spoke with the Daily Express about where the franchise could head after this.
King-Templeton says: “As long as there’s an appetite for it.. nothing is off the table. We don’t know. It’s all about the fans.”
Les notes that Stallone wasn’t going to be in the second one but ultimately changed his mind and came back so nothing is set in stone.
One thing that does change and can be seen is that the action has been “definitely modified” so the series newcomers Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais and 50 Cent could take “the heavy load of the fighting”.
Les adds: “You have to change a little because the cast is getting older. We evolved a little bit. We used the Jackie Chan stunt team so there’s definitely a lot of that Asian martial arts influence.”
That said, Weldon is quick to point out these action guys “stay pretty fit” and “they’re all in much better shape than I am even if they’re older than I am! I think it’s just that’s who they are.”
“Expend4bles” releases in cinemas on September 22nd.
