Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables 4 has found its villain in The Raid star Iko Uwais, who joins the Rocky star along with other returnees such as Jason Statham, Randy Couture and Dolph Lundgren. Along for the ride with oldest action heroes in town will be Megan Fox, Jacob Scipio, Andy Garcia and Curtis Jackson, otherwise known as rapper 50 Cent. Stallone announced earlier this month that he was now ready to leave the franchise, posting a video on his Instagram account from the set on his last day of shooting his scenes for the film. However he certainly suggested the movie series itself is not done yet, saying that he is “ready to pass the baton on” to co-star Statham.
Details of the film are thin on the ground at the moment, but Iko Uwais will play a former military officer with his own army and a side-line in arms dealing, which the group of veteran mercenaries will obviously be looking to put an end to. Uwais has been making a name for himself in action movies recently, having appeared in The Raid and its sequel, as well as recently starring in the somewhat disappointing Snake Eyes for Paramount, and will soon be seen in Fists Full of Vengeance on Netflix.
The franchise so far has grossed over $800 million, and there is very little going to stop that figure breaking the $1 billion mark when The Expendables 4 is released in 2022. For Sylvester Stallone, leaving behind the series is “bittersweet”, but he told fans that he is “getting ready to accept the next challenge.” There is no way of knowing which challenge that may be, as the septuagenarian has a number of projects currently in the works, including next year’s Samaritan, a rumored appearance in Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 and a number of potential directorial efforts coming in the next few years.
“The greatest thing is being able to provide films [and] entertainment [where] maybe there’s a little message in there, because what I try to convey in my successful films is the human touch,” Stallone said in his Instagram video. “Not so much the action; the action is self-evident. But it’s just relating to the audience in a way that they can identify with whatever the mission is, with the characters at hand.”
The Expendables 4 has gone through numerous changes since it was originally announced in 2014, having seen names like Pierce Brosnan, Jack Nicholson and even Clint Eastwood being mentioned by Stallone during the early stages of development. Stallone himself walked away from the project in 2018, citing creative differences in the script and general direction the movie was heading.
However, after an intervention by various stars of the franchise, including old hand Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stallone returned and the film began moving on again. In 2020, Jean-Claude Van Damme pitched his interest in returning to the franchise as the brother of his Expendables 2 villain Jean Vilain, but to no avail and directorial duties passed from Patrick Hughes to Scott Waugh. Having finally rounded out the cast over the last month, with Uwais seemingly the last piece of the puzzle, we now can just wait for the movie’s theatrical release sometime next year. The news of Uwais’ casting in the movie was first reported by Deadline.
Source: movieweb.com