With news of Megan Fox's The Expendables 4 role, audiences are excited to see her in a major action franchise once again. However, many hope that the movie avoids making the same mistakes with her part as the Transformers series made. Despite the level of fame Fox has achieved, her career took a slight hiatus after 2010, and has only just begun to see a revival with the release of smaller movies like Till Death, and a small role in Netflix's recent release, Night Teeth. Many observers attribute this to the Transformers series, explaining why some are eager to avoid a repeat with The Expendables.
Fox became a household name in 2007 after her appearance as Mikaela Banes in the Michael Bay-directed Transformers. While the movie was praised for its outstanding visual effects and technical mastery, even receiving Oscar nominations for them, Mikaela's entire character was almost entirely reduced to being an "it" girl for Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) to try and impress, and save for one scene during the third act, didn't add much to the movie's overall plot progression. The sequel, Revenge of the Fallen, further focused on her looks instead of her acting abilities, even leading to Fox getting nominated for Worst Actress for the movie.
In the years since Transformers, with Hollywood waking up to the treatment of women in the film industry and the often damaging prevalence of the male gaze, Megan Fox’s The Expendables 4 role is seen by many of the actress' long time supporters as a unique opportunity. Notably, the Sylvester Stallone-led franchise is geared almost exclusively towards a male audience, with cast members like Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dolph Lundgren at the helm. By casting Fox in the movie, the filmmakers have the potential to give her the same level of attention as the male leads, in both the action as well as the character development. Not only would this do justice to Fox as a performer, but also help subvert the "attractive female eye candy" trope she was unfairly burdened with, and many actresses in similar action movies still are.
In order for The Expendables 4 to avoid the same pitfalls that befell the Transformers franchise, it's also important that the producers shift the focus away from Fox's image. Not only did those movies objectify the actress in order to help sell tickets, but the alleged treatment on set wasn’t any better. In Fox's own words, Michael Bay was “a nightmare to work for” and compared him to being “Hitler on set”, a comment which later led to her being fired by the franchise’s executive producer, Steven Spielberg, from the third movie, Dark of the Moon. In the interview where she discussed Bay’s behavior, she also addressed how she hated being looked at, and unfortunately, the producers at the time chose to profit off that. This, in turn, affected other projects, such as Jennifer’s Body – a movie that has gone through significant reevaluation since, in considerable ways as well.
With the recent revival of her career, as well as The Expendables 4 now beginning production, many viewers hope Fox will be given more to work with in future projects. With movies like Jennifer's Body and the recent Till Death, the actress has been given the opportunity to truly showcase her talents, with stronger scripts and better direction. While the Expendables franchise is more rooted in gigantic shoot-'em-up action sequences, audiences who have supported Fox's career will no doubt look forward to seeing her fighting alongside the likes of Stallone and Schwarzenegger. As many admirers of the actress maintain that the industry failed her for many years after Transformers, with Fox barely acting in any major project for quite some time, this is in many ways an opportunity for a fresh start.