Any Sylvester Stallone fans looking forward to seeing him reprise the role of Barney Ross for the fourth Expendables movie will be disappointed to hear that the action icon has exited the franchise due to creative differences with Image / Millennium Films boss Avi Lerner.
According to Deadline, Stallone was set to pocket the biggest upfront payday of his career for The Expendables 4, but had a series of disagreements with Lerner over the director, script and qualititive elements of the film, and was concerning about delivering an underwhelming final product.
While Deadline is reporting that Sly has walked, Lerner seems hopeful that a compromise could be reached, telling the site that: ““We’ve got disagreements with Sly, but we’ve had them for over a year and a half,. Right now, each one has an opinion. We agreed on 95% of things, but there are certain things in production we don’t agree on. I don’t think it’s over, but write whatever you want. In my opinion, it’s not dead.”
Will you be disappointed if Stallone doesn’t return for The Expendables 4? Can the franchise continue without him? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below…
Originally published April 1, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
