The Expendables producer Les Weldon offers his take on a female-led movie. Talk of the franchise spinoff started back in 2012, with the film even receiving a tentative title, The Expendabelles. Heavy hitters like Cameron Diaz, Milla Jovovich, and Sigourney Weaver were mentioned in association with the project, but it never came to fruition. In November 2022, producer Jeffrey Greenstein cited one struggle: “why not just have women on the regular team and [they’re] badass?“

The Expendables 4 takes that approach, featuring Megan Fox’s Gina as a member of the team. However, it’s also reignited discussion of the female-led Expendables movie. Speaking with ComicBook.com, Weldon shared whether he thinks that project could still happen in the future:

I am not sure that, there’s been talk, lemme just put it that way. It hasn’t really moved any closer to fruition. And I tell you, scheduling these kind of movies is incredibly difficult. And even for us, it happened to be a little bit easier, whatever, 2008 to 2009 when we did the first one simply because we had an idea of the action stars we wanted to bring in, and they all were eager to jump in and participate.

And it was almost something that the schedule just happened to fall in place. And then once you kick off something that big, you understand that other actors will make themselves available. Whereas if you are starting something from scratch, it becomes difficult to get everybody’s schedule and commitments and whatnot. And this franchise has been, we’ve been very, very lucky that actors want to get on board and will rearrange their schedule to do it.

Expendables Isn’t the First Franchise To Consider a Female-Led Spinoff

Female-led spinoffs have become a trend in recent years. Pirates of the Caribbean and Fast & Furious are two of several franchises that had or continue to have female-led offshoots in the works. Fewer series have brought the projects to fruition, though, with Ocean’s 8 one example of a women-centered spinoff that’s gone all the way to release.

Whereas Weldon cites the practical issue of scheduling, Greenstein’s past comments offer additional insight into why the female-led Expendables movie remains in limbo. In this era, women-focused movies from an existing franchise can feel like they’re pandering to audiences. Some moviegoers would rather see an original film centered on the female experience from the beginning instead of as an afterthought in a male-dominated franchise.

In the case of Ocean’s 8, the film’s connections to the larger Ocean’s series were perfunctory anyway, not adding much to the story. It’s hard to know if a female-led Expendables spinoff would take the same approach. It’s easy to imagine Fox reprising her role, which would strengthen the connection to the main franchise. However, The Expendables 4 has suffered from poor critical reception and box office numbers, a potent combination that could end talks of a female-led spinoff for good.

Source: ComicBook.com