“The Expendables 2” Japanese Theatrical Poster
Expendables 3’s box office belly flop a few years ago – possibly due to the film’s early online leakage or its undesired PG-13 rating – left the franchise in limbo. And Sylvester Stallone’s recent disagreement with series producer Avi Lerner, may have left the series dead, but we’ll get back into that later.
After the fan backlash of Expendables 3’s PG-13 rating, Stallone stated that he would make the next installation R-Rated: “If I do another one it’s going to be a lot bloodier… hardcore R.” He added: “I believe it was a horrible miscalculation on everyone’s part in trying to reach a wider audience, but in doing such, diminish the violence that the audience expects. I’m quite certain it won’t happen again.”
The fact that the recent release of Marvel’s Deadpool became the third R-Rated movie to cross $300 million domestically (The Passion of the Christ and American Sniper are #1 and #2, respectively), toning down violent films to a PG-13 to reach a wider audience became a thing of the past. Then came the recent release of 2017’s Logan, another hugely successful Marvel flick that followed Deadpool’s R-Rating trend. So, an R-Rated Expendables 4 would no longer be “quite certain,” it would have been a done deal.
To producers, this wasn’t some urgent research paper on what’s morally right or wrong, it was all about making money while still keeping the integrity of the filmmakers’ vision intact. Like Stallone said, making Part 3 PG-13 to sell more tickets was a miscalculation. After all, the Expendables franchise started out as R-Rated. It made money. Lots of it. So to have Expendables 3 come out with with its PG-13 rating was a punch in the face for those who loved the series – I mean, you’ve got the biggest R-rated action stars in the world (okay, they’re has-beens, but they’re still action legends… Rambo, Desperado, Terminator, Lethal Weapon, you get the point…) in one film, and they want their target audience to be people who weren’t even born when most of the cast was at their prime? Sometimes greed teaches you a lesson.
So development on Expendables 4 begins, but wait (!) *insert record scratch sound effect*…
In March 2017, Stallone announces he’s leaving the Expendables series. Turns out, he and Nu Image/Millennium chief Avi Lerner could not find common ground on a new director, on the script and on certain qualitative elements of the film.
So what the heck happened? Did Lerner want John Moore (A Good Day to Die Hard) to direct, leaving Stallone running for his life? Were the studios still pushing for a PG-13 rating? Doubtful, just ask Deadpool. Or maybe Stallone’s new found acclaim with Creed turned him off from the goofy franchise? Possibly, but doesn’t Escape Plan 2 rule that out?
There’s some speculation that Stallone was simply “getting too old for this sh*t.” I personally don’t buy it. If you look at his upcoming projects, he’s got a lot of stuff lined up that’s not exactly voice over work for Pixar: Escape Plan 2: Hades, Escape Plan 3 and Ex-Baghdad (with Jackie Chan). Besides, the more action stars you have in one movie like the Expendables, the less physical work you’d have to do. Not saying it’s easy, but he’s not carrying the film by himself like he did in Rambo or Rocky.
Here’s the bottom line: Everyone changes their mind. In the 80s and 90s, how many times did Stallone say “this is the last Rambo, Rocky, etc.” Since then, he’s made another Rambo, and more Rocky films (yes, we’re including Creed – once you put on that lame black hat and leather jacket, you’ve made another Rocky movie).
If you’re a die hard Expendables fanatic, don’t lose hope. But then again, at 71 years old, time isn’t standing still for Stallone (although he’s in better shape than most twenty somethings). There’s also the chance the Expendables might continue without Stallone, but what fun is there in that? Heck, I don’t even like the Expendables franchise and I don’t want to see that happen.
You know what? Screw Expendables. Give me another one of these babies and I’ll be happy…
