Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables Franchise Officially Revives Cancelled Movie

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Nobody’s throwing away the Expendables franchise just yet.

The action-packed Expendables franchise began in 2010 with a film directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone, alongside action stars like Jason Statham, Jet Li, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Subsequent movies in 2012, 2014, and 2023 brought in even more big names, including Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Megan Fox. Despite its star power, the fourth film underperformed at the box office, earning only $51 million with a $100 million production cost, leaving the future of a potential Expendables 5 uncertain.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, a female-led spin-off of The Expendables is back in development after being stalled for years. Eclectic Pictures and Hollywood Ventures Group announced at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday that the movie, currently titled Expendabelles, is one of several commercially focused films they’re collaborating on.

Lionsgate, the company that currently owns the rights to the series, is backing a new movie described as a visually exciting, action-packed story that will both build upon the existing lore and stand on its own. This new installment will be a prequel, taking place in the late 1990s – over ten years before the events of the original Expendables films.

The film Expendabelles is still in the early stages of production and hasn’t finalized its creative team. Producing the film are Heidi Jo Markel of Eclectic Pictures, who has been involved since the beginning, and Glenn Gainor of Hollywood Ventures Group. Executive producers include Julie Kroll from Thirteenth Studios (who helped develop the project with Markel and Patrick Muldoon), as well as Joe Smith, John Yarincik, Nelly Kim, Stephen R. Foreht, and Sandy Climan from HGV.

Below, read comments on the revival of Expendabelles from Markel and Gainor:

We’re incredibly excited to launch Expendabelles with our fantastic partners at Hollywood Ventures Group. They share our vision for expanding this franchise into a major cinematic experience. We know there’s a strong demand for action films led by women, and we think now is the perfect time to introduce a new team of skilled operatives. We’re especially eager to work with talented creators to deliver a modern, exciting, and action-packed movie that audiences around the world will love.

We’re aiming to capture what made the original Expendables movies so popular with audiences worldwide, but also update the series with a fresh and exciting approach. It’s a familiar world, but we’re presenting it in a completely new way.

The idea for Expendabelles, a spin-off featuring a female cast for the Expendables franchise, first emerged very early in the series’ development. As far back as October 2012, actresses like Milla Jovovich, Cameron Diaz, and Meryl Streep were being considered for roles. The script was being co-written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith, who also worked on 10 Things I Hate About You. In early 2014, Robert Luketic, known for Legally Blonde, signed on to direct, with plans to begin filming the following year. Unfortunately, the project never moved forward and was officially cancelled in November 2022.

The upcoming film, Expendabelles, will largely be its own story, though it’s set in the same world as The Expendables. There’s still a chance characters from the original series could appear. Several female characters have already been featured in previous concepts, including Lacy (Charisma Carpenter), Sandra Garza (Giselle Itié), Agent Maggie Chan (Yu Nan), Luna Maya (Ronda Rousey), Agent Gina (Megan Fox), and Lash (Levy Tran). However, the project is still in early stages, so we shouldn’t expect any official casting news for a while.

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2026-05-15 18:11