When Sylvester Stallone started bringing all the most significant action stars in Hollywood together as The Expendables franchise went on, fans were shocked that wrestler-turned-action-star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wasn’t a part of it. As it turns out, Dwayne Johnson wanted to be a part of the action franchise, even talking about starring in the movie.

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At this point, it’s impossible not to know the name Dwayne Johnson. Starting out as a wrestler in the WWE ring, he started his acting career as The Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns, a notorious CGI failure in the tender technological age of 2001. Still, he was much more successful in his first leading role as Mathayus in The Scorpion King.

Since then, Dwayne Johnson has been a part of some of the biggest action franchises in Hollywood, beating many other A-lister actors to major roles like that in Faster (2010), Fast Five (2011) and remaining in the Fast franchise G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013), and even becoming the face of Black Adam in 2022. Despite all that, he has yet to be a part of an Expendables film.

After the massive success of The Expendables in 2010, fans went wild when Dwayne Johnson talked about wanting to star in the next instalment of the franchise, especially since he wanted to be written into the story as a villain instead of as part of the team. Johnson claimed that he was friends with Stalline and that it should make it possible for him to be a part of the franchise in this way.

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The second movie in the franchise came and went in 2012, starring unique action talents like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jet Li, Scott Adkins, Sylvester Stallone (of course), and Terry Crews, but there was still no Dwayne Johnson.

The action star shared that he was never approached by Stallone’s team about being a part of the movie. After seeing it, he wasn’t surprised that he wasn’t a part of it because he realised that the franchise wasn’t ready for the villain he wanted to be for the movie series.

“I just saw The Expendables 2 last night and I can honestly tell you that they’re not ready for me,” Johnson said in an interview. “They’re still hunting people down, so they’re not really ready. I haven’t been approached about The Expendables 3.”

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Like with The Expendables 2, The Expendables 3 came and went without including The Rock. Now, the franchise is even gearing up for the release of Expend4bles, bringing together a cast that is bigger and worse than any before it as “the old guard” makes way for fresh action star blood, including 50 Cent, Andy Garcia, Dolph Lundgren, Iko Uwais, Jason Statham, Megan Fox, Randy Couture, Sylvester Stallone, and Tony Jaa, and remarkably…still no Dwayne Johnson. Will the action star ever get the chance to be the villain in this fantastic action story?

Do you think The Expendables isn’t ready for Dwayne Johnson’s villain?

“They’re Not Ready for Me” – Dwayne Johnson Talks About Starring in The Expendables Written by Megan Oosthuizen for Fortress of Solitude