Ever since the first Expendables movie opened in 2010, the plan for a female-led version titled The Expendabelles has been discussed. It went so far that in 2012, Legally Blonde writers Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith were hired to write it, while that film’s director Robert Luketic was attached to direct. Names including Naomi Watts, Kate Beckinsale, and even Meryl Streep were floated to star. That version, which would’ve centered on covert female agents posing as call girls to rescue a kidnapped weapons engineer, never got off the ground. But there’s no such thing as a truly dead idea in Hollywood.
THR reports that Eclectic Pictures and Hollywood Ventures Group are looking to revive Expendabelles, continuing as an expansion of the Expendables franchise. The film will be an origin story set in the ’90s, with the plan to create “a stylized, action-driven cinematic event designed to expand the mythology of the franchise while standing firmly on its own.”
Lionsgate is fully backing the project, having acquired the rights to the Expendables franchise last year.
So, one of the problems with the first Expendabelles attempt, as explained by Millennium Films president, was that the filmmakers wouldv’e had to explain why there was a team of only female operatives. The decision was made to simply add more women to the Expendables team, which included Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, and other grizzled male action heroes.
The Expendables franchise has earned $855M worldwide across four movies, the most recent 2023’s Expend4bles which earned a series low $51M.
It doesn’t seem that audiences are particularly interested in more of these films, honestly. I would add that female-led action movies have done poorly in recent years, too, whether it’s the Charlie’s Angels reboot or spy flick The 355. It’s going to take something extraordinary for this one to break through the glass ceiling.
