The Expendables Almost Got a Women-Fronted Spinoff

When it comes to action, there are plenty of movies with women leads, including big comic book films like Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey, Captain Marvel, and Black Widow. For a while, there's been talk of a women-led Fast and Furious spin-off, and that's not the only franchise that's considered taking that route. Millennium Films' Jeffrey Greenstein recently had a chat with The Holywood Reporter and was asked if making action movies that star women such as Red Sonja, Till Death, and The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard was a "strategic shift." In his response, he revealed the studio has been trying to develop a new version of The Expendables. 

"I don't think it's necessarily a shift, at least from our perspective. Maybe it's more that the rest of the world is now thinking about other stories to tell. With The Hitman's Bodyguard, Salma's [Hayek] character was just so much fun, it made sense to build the second film around her," Greenstein explained. "We also like working with the same people, so we did Till Death with Megan [Fox] and she's in the new Expendables. It's really just about working with talented people. But I will say something: We'd been trying to develop The Expendables, a female version of The Expendables, but my problem with that project was always trying to find a way to justify why we'd have a woman team. Instead of trying to explain that, why not just have women on the regular team and [they're] badass? Instead of having to explain why a women character got there and all that, you just do what you'd do with a man: show them kicking ass."

When Is The Expendables 4 Being Released? 

It's been over eight years since The Expendables 3 hit theatres, and fans of the franchise are eager to see the star-studded line-up of action stars return in the fourth movie, which was recently revealed to be titled Expend4bles. Currently, the upcoming movie is scheduled to be released on September 22, 2023. 

The previous Expendables movies feature an impressive line-up of big names such as Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Bruce Willis, Terry Crews, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Harrison Ford, Wesley Snipes, Antonio Banderas, Mickey Rourke, Mel Gibson, Chuck Norris, Ronda Rousey, and more. The upcoming fourth movie will see the return of Stallone, Statham, Lundgren, and Couture. Franchise newcomers include Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, Andy Garcia, and Iko Uwais. 

It was originally unclear if Expend4bles was going to be an official fourth film or a spin-off about Statham's character, Lee Christmas, but a previous report from The Hollywood Reporter indicated that it will be a little bit of both. It appears Statham will have a bigger role than Stallone this time around. In fact, Stallone wrote on Instagram last October that he was done with the franchise and "ready to pass the baton on to Jason." 

Would you like to see an Expendables movie starring women? Tell us in the comments!