The Expendabelles was a proposed, all-female spin-off of the hit action franchise, but is it still happening? Sylvester Stallone's career hit a dry spell during the late '90s, and it wasn't until the success of 2006's Rocky Balboa that he got out of that slump. He scored another success with 2008 sequel Rambo, but instead of making another outing in his major franchises, he decided to create a new one. Stallone starred in, wrote and directed The Expendables, where he played the leader of a mercenary crew taking down the dictator of a small island. The movie sold itself on its cast of action icons, including Jet Li, Jason Statham and Bruce Willis.
The Expendables was a success upon release in 2010 and spawned two sequels. The Expendables 3 - which nearly added Jack Nicholson - saw the series hit a rough patch, with the sequel aiming for a PG-13 rating and watering down the intensity. This attempt to reach new viewers instead alienated the target audience, and it became the lowest-grossing of the saga. After nearly a decade away, the upcoming The Expendables 4 will see the return of Stallone and his crew, including new additions like Megan Fox and Iko Uwais.
While Expendables 4 is finally set to arrive in late 2022, another proposed entry has seemingly disappeared. The Expendabelles was set to feature a team of mercenaries assembled with female action legends, but is the movie still happening?
The Expendabelles' Development & Story
The first three Expendables - where Van Damme turned down the original - were noticeably light on female team members outside of Yu Nan's Maggie or Ronda Rousey's Luna from the second and third movies respectively. Around 2012, it was confirmed by series producers Millennium Films that a spin-off dubbed The Expendabelles was coming together, with Legally Blonde screenwriting duo Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith penning the script.
In 2014 a logline was released to Deadline that was met with immediate derision, which involved "the world's deadliest female operatives" having to pose as sex workers to infiltrate the island lair of a "deadly despot." After this take was met with mockery, Millennium then claimed that was the wrong logline and the movie instead involved "An elite group of highly trained female mercenaries are brought together for a covert hostage rescue mission."
The Expedabelles' Cast & Crew
Early reports on The Expendabelles suggested that producers were reaching out to Resident Evil star Milla Jovovich, Cameron Diaz and even Meryl Streep for the movie. In 2014 - despite Millennium claiming it was looking for a female helmer - Legally Blonde and Killers director Robert Luketic was hired. It was also reported in 2014 that Sigourney Weaver had rejected a role in the movie, while in 2016 Stallone revealed he had no involvement with the movie.
Is The Expendabelles Still Happening Or Is It Canceled?
The Expendabelles appeared to be gearing up in 2014, but following the tepid response to The Expendables 3, those plans seem to have changed. News on both the fourth movie and The Expendabelles went very quiet, though in 2016 Luketic stated in a Denver Centre interview that he was still developing the project, which appeared to be retitled The Bells.
However, since then almost nothing has been reported about The Expendables - which has a better director's cut - spin-off. The landscape for female-led action films has changed quite a lot since 2014, as seen by the success of movies like Wonder Woman and Atomic Blonde. Should The Expendables 4 prove a hit, maybe The Expendabelles concept will be revived, but it appears to have been quietly canceled.