Over the weekend it was reported that Sylvester Stallone has exited the Expendables franchise due to creative differences with Image / Millennium Films boss Avi Lerner, and now Arnold Schwarzenegger has confirmed that he won’t be back for The Expendables 4 unless Sly is on board.
“There is no Expendables without Sly,” said Arnie in an interview with EW. “I would never do the movie without him, no. I have not seen the script; I don’t even know if there is a script, even though they want to shoot in August again, like they usually do.”
Schwarzenegger then went on to reveal that even if Stallone is involved, he’d only be interested in reprising the role of Trench if he felt his character was handled correctly:
“You know, I think the first and second one were terrific,” he said. “But, the third one, I thought my part was not written well. It was also not playing well in the movie, as far as I was concerned. Maybe other people believed differently. But I didn’t believe that I had any value in the movie. I love the franchise, by the way. I think it’s a spectacular franchise, The Expendables. I think that Sly has good ideas, what he wants to do with it, and I think if they write a really good script [in] which my part is very well-developed, I would do it. If not, then I won’t do it.”
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Given how integral Stallone was to bringing The Expendables together in the first place, one would have to assume that Schwarzenegger won’t be the only cast member to opt out if he’s no longer involved with the series.