3 Apr – Breaking the hearts of "The Expendables" fans everywhere is Sylvester Stallone by breaking the news that Expendables team leader, Barney Ross has led his last mission. According to Deadline.com, Sylvester Stallone is withdrawing from taking part in "The Expendables 4" despite reportedly being offered US $20 million, the biggest upfront payday in his career, to reprise the character. 'Why?' you ask. Apparently, it's because Stallone and Nu Image/Millennium chief, Avi Lerner have had a falling out over the direction of the film. The two failed to see eye-to-eye on a new director, on the script, right down to the CGI house to handle visual effects. Sources say that this is mostly because of the high bar Stallone set for himself after reprising Rocky Balboa with Michael B Jordan and Ryan Coogler in "Creed". Now, he's concerned about a franchise which he is incredibly linked with potentially having low ratings. Despite this, Lerner isn't all that worried. "We've got disagreements with Syl," Lerner acknowledged, "but we've got 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." For now, it's unclear how Stallone's exit, thus the absence of his character, Barney Ross will affect the franchise or the cast.
One of the biggest questions to arise is who will take over leadership of the group of mercenaries in his place in "The Expendables 4" and any and all future instalments of the action movie franchise. They could either get Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jason Statham's character take over. However, thus far, not much information has been released on what direction the fourth film will take.