The Expendabelles Spin-off Is No Longer Happening

Credit: The Expendables 3

We’re a little less than a year away from getting the final chapter of the Expendables franchise, though there are several spin-offs in the works following Expendables 4. However, it appears that the longest-developed project has officially been scrapped. Expendabelles was one of the spin-offs confirmed back in 2012, with Legally Blonde screenwriters Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith tapped to pen the script. The film seemed to be on track when a logline was released in 2014, where “An elite group of highly trained female mercenaries are brought together for a covert hostage rescue mission.” Now this logline came after the misfire of the supposed original logline, which saw the female operatives pose as sex workers to infiltrate an island lair. The official synopsis does confirm that the mercenaries will penetrate the island lair, though it’s not confirmed if the script was changed following the backlash of the ladies having to pose as sex workers.

Robert Luketic was set to helm Expendabelles with several names, such as Milla Jovovich, Meryl Streep, and Cameron Diaz rumored to star in the project. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case any longer. After Expendables 3 turned out to be a miss for Lionsgate, the spin-off suddenly became cold, though there were reports about the project here and there. However, now, it’s been confirmed that the film is officially dead. Producer Jeffrey Greenstein revealed the news to The Hollywood Reporter, putting all hopes of an all-female Expendables to rest:

Credit: The Expendables 3

“We also like working with the same people, so we did Till Death with Megan [Fox] and she’s in the new Expendables. It’s really just about working with talented people. But I will say something: We’d been trying to develop The ExpendaBelles, a female version of The Expendables, but my problem with that project was always trying to find a way to justify why we’d have a woman team. Instead of trying to explain that, why not just have women on the regular team, and [they’re] badass? Instead of having to explain why a woman character got there and all that, you just do what you’d do with a man: show them kicking ass.”

In theory, this is a solid reason to not have a female-led spin-off. However, there’s no denying that it would’ve been cool to see some female action stars get together to kick some major ass. It’s not exactly clear why it took this long to get to this point. It’s been ten years since the announcement of the spin-off, and nearly all the pieces of the puzzle were set. So why wasn’t this mindset put into place before a director and screenwriter were hired? Obviously, Expendables 3 flopping had something to do with the spin-off slowing down, but it’s also possible that executives came to the conclusion that Expendabelles just wouldn’t be profitable enough. Hollywood is a business first and foremost, so if the studio truly believed that this film was going to bring in huge bucks, then it would’ve been made regardless of whether a female-led cast was necessary or not.

Credit: The Expendables 3

Either way, it should be fun to see Megan Fox and the new women introduced in the upcoming Expendables 4. Hopefully, the franchise goes back to its R-rated glory days – which was already stated by producers that it would – instead of trying hard to appeal to the masses like the third installment. Expendables 4 is set to be released on September 22, 2023, with Tony Jaa, Jacob Scipio, Levy Tran, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Iko Uwais, Andy Garcia, Eddie Hall, Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture. We’ll keep you updated when more information about The Expendables passes along.