According to one of the film's stars, The Expendables 4 has a great script but might not actually get made. In 2010, Sylvester Stallone starred in and directed The Expendables, which brought together several of the action heroes of the '80s into one action-packed blockbuster. While all three of The Expendables films got mixed reviews, they managed to earn Lionsgate a pretty penny at the box office. The two sequels came two years apart from each other, but with The Expendables 3's poor reviews and smaller profit than the first two, the fourth film was stalled.
The Expendables 4 has been talked about since 2014, but has been stuck in development since then. Over the years, the status of The Expendables 4 has had its ups and downs. There have been several reports claiming that The Expendables 4 will start "filming soon," the most recent claiming an early 2019 start date. Of course, the movie never actually started filming. Stallone has teased the development of The Expendables 4 several times, but at one point Stallone actually stepped away from the project altogether. Now, Randy Couture has another update.
When speaking with The Action Elite about his recent work in Justin Lee's Final Kill, Couture revealed that he got a great script last year for the next Expendables, but isn't sure if the film is still happening or not. The last fans heard from Couture about The Expendables 4, he claimed that it would start filming in Summer 2018. Couture's full quote can be read below:
"It is a thing! I got a script last year and really enjoyed reading it. It was very well done but where we are on the production scale and getting it moving I’m not sure. There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes with the producer to make a film that big so I’m hoping this Spring we get the greenlight but I’m not hearing anything definitive right now."
While the fate of The Expendables 4 is still up in the air, there has been word of a few other Expendables-related projects. Back in 2015, it was announced that Fox was developing an Expendables TV series that would bring together iconic TV stars, but Fox ended up passing on the project, so it's unlikely to happen at this point. One film said to be in development, is a Jason Statham led spinoff, which seems much more likely to happen given the success of Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw.
Even though Couture has a script in hand, that shouldn't be taken as news that the movie is moving forward. There have been numerous updates about the status of the film, but Lionsgate seems to be hesitant about greenlighting a fourth movie. The last fans heard, Stallone was back to working on The Expendables 4, but nothing has been officially announced. That being said, given the over the top action sequences and the star-studded cast The Expendables 4 would have, there is still a desire from fans to see it.
Source: The Action Elite