The Expendables 4: Release date, trailer, cast, plot & more

❘ Published: 2023-08-23T16:13:55

Dolph Lundgren in The Expendables 4 trailer

Lionsgate

They’ll die when they’re dead: here’s everything we know about The Expendables 4, including its release date, trailer, cast, plot, and more.

There was an idea… to bring together a group of bicep-bursting, gun-toting heroes from multiple eras to see if they could become something more; to see if they could work together when we needed them, and fight the battles we could only dream of.

This led to The Expendables, an all-star wet dream for ’80s action aficionados and modern audiences that brought together the talents of Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crews, Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke, and Bruce Willis, among others.

The first entry was a box-office smash and led to two sequels; one is great, but the third was a watered-down disappointment. Now, we’re on the road to The Expendables 4, the final movie in the series – so, here’s what we know.

The Expendables 4 release date

The Expendables 4 will hit cinemas on September 22, 2023.

It’s been nearly 10 years since the third entry, which upped its star count (including Mel Gibson as its villain), but lost the charm it had managed to find in The Expendables 2. Its middling returns ($214 million from a $100 million budget) left the franchise’s future in doubt, including an all-female spinoff – titled The Expendabelles – being shelved.

In November 2014, Stallone confirmed it would return to an R-rating, and two years later, he revealed it’d cap off the quadrilogy. There was a blip between 2017 and 2018 in which Stallone left the project, citing creative differences, but after being backed by other cast and crew members – including Arnold Schwarzenegger – he returned to the sequel.

We didn’t hear much more about it until the 2020s, partly as a result of delays amid global restrictions. However, it has emerged from its touch-and-go development and will finally release this year.

The Expendables 4 trailer

The newest trailer for The Expendables 4 dropped on August 23, 2023 – check it out below:

The first trailer was shared online on June 7, 2023. Check it out below:

The Expendables 4 cast

The Expendables 4 cast is confirmed to include:

Sylvester Stallone as Barney Ross
Jason Statham as Lee Christmas
Dolph Lundgren as Gunner Jensen
Randy Couture as Toll Road
Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson
Megan Fox
Iko Uwais
Andy García
Tony Jaa
Jacob Scipio
Levy Tran
Sheila Shah
Eddie Hall

There’s one notable absence: Terry Crews. In 2018, he announced he was refusing to appear in the movie or any other entries in the franchise after alleging he was sexually assaulted by WME’s Adam Venit.

During his testimony to a senate committee in support of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, he said (as per Mashable): “I’d done three movies called the Expendables with Sylvester Stallone. The producer of that film called my manager and asked him to drop my case in order for me to be in the fourth installment of the movie. And if I didn’t, there would be trouble.”

In a later tweet, Crews revealed that producer to be Avi Lerner, who has also been accused of sexual harassment. “This was one thing I had to decide whether I was going to draw the line on: Am I going to be a part of this, or am I going to take a stand? And there are projects I had to turn down,” he said.

Crews’ lawsuit against Venit has since been settled, but he won’t appear in the film.

As for other cast members, a lot of big names have fallen into the orbit of the project at one point or another: Pierce Brosnan, Jack Nicholson, Hulk Hogan, Dwayne Johnson, Clint Eastwood, and Jackie Chan, among others.

Jean-Claude Van Damme expressed interest in returning to the franchise, only this time, he’d play the brother of his villain Jean Vilain, but it doesn’t seem like that’s come to fruition.

Arnold Schwarzenegger recently confirmed he won’t be back. “It’s done and I’m not in it. I said, ‘You know what, we have done this and I’m out of it.’ And [Stallone] really understood,” he told Parade in an interview for FUBAR.

“I did [the first Expendables] as a favor to Sly. I shot it on a Saturday for two hours quickly in a church with Bruce Willis. Sly said, ‘Oh, can you do Expendables 2?’ and I did that for a weekend. Then it was expanded for Expendables 3. And that was it. We’re going to do something together one day.”

The Expendables 4 plot

While official plot details haven’t been confirmed, The Expendables 4 is expected to revolve around a nuclear conflict between the US and Russia.

In an interview with Film Starts, Lundgren said: “The focus of the action is a nuclear conflict between the USA and Russia, which is a timeless story, especially today.

“It’s a big movie with big stunts, shoot-outs, and some funny characters. I play Gunner Jensen again, the drunk Swede, who has been sober for some time now in the fourth part and goes on a philosophical search for meaning before falling back into old habits.”

That’s everything we know about The Expendables 4 right now, but you can check out our other upcoming movie and TV hubs below: