Expendables 4: Why Sylvester Stallone Quit & Then Rejoined The Franchise (2024)

Sylvester Stallone is making his triumphant return to the cast of Expendables 4, but why did he leave the blockbuster franchise in the first place? After famously declining to return to the franchise he started and the $20 million dollar paycheck that came with it, Sylvester Stallone will return as Barney Ross to lead The Expendables mercenary team for a fourth time. In Expendables 4, the team is sent to Libya to stop a mercenary from stealing nuclear warheads. However, while the previous movies in the series were all about adding iconic action heroes with each consecutive release, the cast of Expendables 4 is stripped back.

The profitable Lionsgate action films eventually stalled after The Expendables 3 was released in 2014. While The Expendables 3 performed the worst out of all of The Expendables movies at the box office, making just $209 million worldwide, that led to a number of production troubles for the fourquel. The Expendables 4 originally entered production almost immediately, and Stallone revealed that Jack Nicholson was in talks for Expendables 4 and made other huge announcements. However, that was before a load of development issues that led even Stallone to part ways with the cast of Expendables 4.

Why Sylvester Stallone Left The Expendables Franchise

Despite originally seeming eager for the new movie, Sylvester Stallone publicly quit The Expendables 4 in 2017 because he was struggling with creative differences with his team, along with the development of the franchise's direction and the screenplay. While it seemed for some time that the franchise might be dead in the water after this, a deluge of cast members vocalized their support for Stallone, including one-time California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. This ultimately led to the Rambo star announcing his return to The Expendables 4 in early 2018, helping to confirm the development of a fourth and final film.

How Sylvester Stallone Returned To The Expendables

Whenever "creative differences" are cited as the reason behind someone leaving a project, it can be hard to know what the real story is. Officially, Sylvester Stallone and Millennium Media CEO Avi Lerner could not agree on the writing and direction. However, it seems that other factors were at play as Stallone's ideas for the visual effects and CGI team for The Expendables 4 did not align with the plans from the producer. For a movie franchise that relies more on its action sequences than it does its plot, it's understandable that this might have been a serious issue for Stallone to continue to work on the project.

Sylvester Stallone left the development and the cast of Expendables 4 because the movie couldn't be what he wanted it to be. However, Stallone announced his return in a social media post in 2018 (via Digital Spy). However, Stallone is hardly in Expendables 4, and he didn't return to write the screenplay as he did with the first three movies. Nevertheless, that didn't stop him from criticizing some production choices in his return announcement. Stallon ironically declared he was returning by commenting negatively on the choice of camera, noting, "Enjoying time on the set..With the new digital camera. I miss THE OLD fashion PANAVISION CAMERA way of making movies…"

Stallone Took On A Smaller Role In Expendables 4

While the actor might have rejoined the cast of Expendables 4 in 2018, Stallone took a smaller role in the film, and given that he was the face of the franchise, the downsized performance is more than noticeable. The creative differences likely impacted how much screentime Stallone has in the fourquel, but he could have a greater role in Expendables 5. While Barney is sidelined in the cast of Expendables 4, the post-credits scene hints that the fourquel isn't the final movie in the franchise, which Stallone originally stated in 2016. Unfortunately, based on the disappointing Expendables 4 box office performance, Expendables 5 is now looking unlikely.