Sylvester Stallone Confirms Expendables Spinoff Starts Filming In October

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Sylvester Stallone confirms that a spinoff of The Expendables is set to shoot this October. Stallone began The Expendables franchise in 2010 with an ensemble Dirty-Dozen style action film that rounded up many familiar '80s and '90s action stars to collaborate on a new franchise. The first film was directed by Stallone, which was successful enough to spawn two sequels, 2012's The Expendables 2 and 2014's The Expendables 3. Since then, there's been a lot of back-and-forth discussion about sequels, as well as a potential all-female spin-off, but nothing has come to fruition until now.

The Expendables franchise focuses on Stallone's Barney Ross, the leader of a group of ex-military mercenaries (aka The Expendables) who tackle high-risk jobs all over the world. The series has attracted a long string of action stars to the cast, including Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wesley Snipes, Harrison Ford and Mel Gibson, amongst many others. Now, Stallone has provided an exciting update on the franchise.

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Stallone took to Instagram today, posting a picture of someone's highly-detailed arm tattoo of his Expendables character Barney Ross, while dropping the news in the description that he's heading off to shoot a spinoff of The Expendables in October with the working title of Christmas Story. Check out Stallone's post below:

Jason Statham has played the character of Lee Christmas in all three of The Expendables films, so this could suggest that he's part of the project. A Statham Expendables spinoff has been reported before, but not confirmed, so this does line up with that. Stallone recently showed off a ring he designed for The Expendables 4 and earlier this year, star Randy Couture suggested that The Expendables 4 would film this Fall. It's possible that The Expendables 4 and the spinoff are one and the same, but until there's clarification, it's hard to know which direction this franchise is going.

It's been seven years since The Expendables 3, and Stallone has busied himself with many projects since that time, including an MCU turn in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the Rocky spinoff films, Creed and Creed II, another turn as John Rambo in Rambo: Last Blood and most recently as the voice of King Shark in James Gunn's The Suicide Squad. He recently wrapped the superhero film, Samaritan, which is due in 2022, but with this announcement it appears he'll be back in The Expendables saddle sooner than later.

Thus far, The Expendables films have been regarded as a nostalgic nod to the action films the ensemble cast is known for, and the lack of movement on a fourth film in the series has been frustrating for fans, especially after the last entry opted for a toned-down PG-13 rating, which may have affected the box office. With this new announcement being labeled as a spinoff, it raises questions as to what kind of film this will be. Throughout the first three films, it's shown that Stallone and Statham's characters are best friends, so this spinoff could potentially be more of a duo than an ensemble. As is usually the case with Stallone, he'll likely reveal it on Instagram when the time is right.

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