Expend4bles Producer Addresses Women-Led Spinoff

"It hasn't really moved any closer to fruition," Les Weldon says of a women-fronted Expendables.

By Jamie Jirak

Exped4bles is now playing in theaters, and despite director Scott Waugh's hopes for a fifth installment, this might be the last time fans see the team of action stars assemble. The fourth movie is not having the same success as the films that came before. Not only did Expend4bles have the franchise's lowest opening weekend, but it's also the lowest rated on Rotten Tomatoes, earning a harsh 13% critics score. However, the audience score is much more forgiving and currently stands at 70%. While the franchise may be coming to an end, we can't help but hold out for a women-fronted spinoff. Millennium Films' Jeffrey Greenstein revealed there had previously been discussions about the idea, so ComicBook.com asked Expend4bles producer Les Weldon if there was still a chance. 

"I am not sure that there's been talk, lemme just put it that way," Weldon admitted. "It hasn't really moved any closer to fruition. And I tell you, scheduling these kind of movies is incredibly difficult. And even for us, it happened to be a little bit easier, whatever, 2008 to 2009 when we did the first one simply because we had an idea of the action stars we wanted to bring in, and they all were eager to jump in and participate."

He continued, "And it was almost something that the schedule just happened to fall in place. And then once you kick off something that big, you understand that other actors will make themselves available. Whereas if you are starting something from scratch, it becomes difficult to get everybody's schedule and commitments and whatnot. And this franchise has been, we've been very, very lucky that actors want to get on board and will rearrange their schedule to do it." 

Expedn4bles Director Talks Jason Statham and Megan Fox's Flirty Fight Scene:

In Expedn4bles, Megan Fox's Gina is not only dating Jason Statham's Lee Christmas, but she also ends up leading the team. Early in the film, Stallone and Fox engage in a flirty fight scene, which director Scott Waugh broke down for ComicBook.com. 

"That was exciting because it was something where it was never supposed to be violent and it was supposed to be exactly what you said, kind of tongue in cheek," Waugh explained. "And the beauty of that fight that I love the most is – you know, we talked with Alan [Ng], the fight choreographer, and kind of making it really playful and fun – but was collaborating with Jason and Megan to come up with these one-liners in the middle of the fight. And all those lines, all of them were not written. They all came up between Jason and Megan and every time they came up with one. And if it made me laugh, then we put it in the movie." 

ComicBook.com also got the chance to ask stunt coordinator Alan Ng about Fox and Statham's big scene.

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"Scott had the vision and told us his idea of creating a sexy, flirty, fun fight scene that also shows how skillful Megan is," Ng shared. "Jason was very involved with sharing ideas for movement and locks too. It worked out really well."

 Stay tuned for more from our interview with Les Weldon. Expend4bles is now playing in theaters. 

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