The Expendable franchise sort of hit a wall with The Expendables 3, when Lionsgate/Millennium Media saw dollar signs by pivoting from a mature R-rating to a kid-friendly PG-13. However, this wasn’t the big money-maker the studio had hoped and it ended up becoming the least successful installment. I guess children weren’t terribly interested in seeing disgraced actor Mel Gibson and Sly Stallone going at in action film.

Seven years later and they are finally moving forward with another film, however, aren’t calling it Expendables 4.

The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the untitled pic will see franchise stars Sly Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and Randy Couture return. The new recruits will include Megan Fox (Rogue, Transformers, Jennifer’s Body), 50 Cent (Escape Plan, Den of Thieves), and Thai martial artist Ton Jaa (Fast & Furious 7).

Previously, the film had been talked-up as a solo project for Statham’s character Lee Christmas and wouldn’t have as much of Stallone’s Barney Ross in the film as fans might expect. Stallone had recently referred to the project as a “spinoff” with the working title Christmas Story.

Sources say in this outing Statham will be the one with the biggest gun. Fox is the female lead.

Scott Waugh (Need For Speed) will direct from a script penned by Spenser Cohen with revisions by Max Adams and John Joseph Connolly.

As previously mentioned by Stallone, production is aiming to begin in October.

Stallone is coming off James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad and Statham was recently seen in Guy Ritchie’s Wrath of Man and David Leitch’s Hobbs & Shaw.

We should expect a release date in 2022.

THE EXPENDABLES 3 – Years ago, Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) co-founded the Expendables with Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson). After Stonebanks became an arms dealer, Ross was forced to kill him — or so he thought. Now, Stonebanks is back and he’s on a mission to end the Expendables. Ross decides that the way to fight old blood is with new blood, so he assembles a team of younger, faster, more tech-savvy recruits. The battle to topple Stonebanks becomes a clash of old-school methods vs. high-tech expertise.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER