The Director Who Made Jason Statham A Star Would Be Perfect To Save His Failing $840 Million Franchise (2024)

One of Jason Statham's biggest franchises is in trouble, but the filmmaker who gave him his big break could be the one to rescue it. Before Jason Statham's first action role in Ghosts of Mars, he was known for more comedic performances in British gangster films. The Transporter changed the course of his career, and he soon became the next big action star. Jason Statham action movies are almost always a good time - even the bad ones - and while he occasionally steps outside the genre, he knows what audiences want to see him doing.

Over 25 years on from his screen debut, Statham is still a bankable leading man. The Beekeeper was a huge solo success for Statham in early 2024, and his numerous franchises like The Meg or The Fast & Furious are going strong. Sadly, the same can't be said for the fourth outing in The Expendables movie franchise. Expendables 4 received terrible reviews and grossed around half its production budget at the box office. Another entry isn't totally out of the question, but it will need a major change in direction if it's going to rescue the property.

Guy Ritchie Would Be Perfect To Save Jason Statham's Expendables Franchise

Ritchie cast Jason Statham in 1998's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Statham had virtually no acting experience before Guy Ritchie cast him in his gangster comedy Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The low-budget film became a word-of-mouth hit, and in the aftermath, Ritchie cast Statham as the lead in his hit follow-up Snatch. Ritchie and Statham's careers subsequently went in different directions, but the duo still worked together several times in the years ahead. Ritchie's Wrath of Man was also one of Statham's best thrillers of recent years. Since The Expendables is in dire need of fixing, Ritchie might be the Guy for the job.

Guy Ritchie has become one of Hollywood's hardest-working directors and has essentially turned out a big-budget movie a year since 2015. Many of these films have been ensemble action pieces too, including the Henry Cavill-fronted The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Statham's Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and the upcoming In the Grey. The critical and commercial reception to Ritchie's film output is, admittedly, mixed, but he never phones it in either.

Even Ritchie's lesser outings have an energy to them, and he has a talent for creative action setpieces. Sylvester Stallone has largely been the author of The Expendables, meaning many of the sequels have lacked a strong authorial voice. Bringing Ritchie on board a potential Expendables 5 would give it a fresh voice, as he would bring his own stamp on it. Plus, his history with Statham would mean they'd be simpatico creatively.

Why The Expendables 4 Bombed So Badly

It's easier to list what The Expendables 4 did wrong than right

Expend4bles

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The Expendables 4 is the fourth entry in the action legacy-hero franchise, bringing together famous action-hero stars from the past and present to battle international terrorist threats. This fourth entry sees the mercenary group dragged into a catastrophic nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia, forcing them to intervene.

Director

Scott Waugh

Release Date

September 22, 2023

Distributor(s)

Lionsgate

Writers

Spenser Cohen , John Joseph Connolly , Max Adams

Cast

Dolph Lundgren , Randy Couture , Eddie Hall , Sylvester Stallone , Levy Tran , Iko Uwais , tony jaa , Sheila Shah , Jacob Scipio , Jason Statham , Andy Garcia , Megan Fox , 50 Cent

Runtime

103 Minutes

Franchise(s)

The Expendables

prequel(s)

The Expendables , The Expendables 2 , The Expendables 3

Budget

$100 million

The Expendables 3 arrived to tepid reviews and box-office in 2014. At the time, blame was placed on the softer rating and overstuffing the cast with too many characters, but never giving any of them a good showcase. The fourth film took nearly a decade to arrive, but instead of fixing the previous film's mistakes, it made brand new ones. The Expendables 4 story was deeply unoriginal, the film is riddled with obvious, cheap-looking CGI - to the point where the film can't convincingly depict characters standing outside - and the action was nothing special.

The Expendables 4 attempted to position Statham as the new lead of the series, but while the star was committed as always, the film surrounding him was a chore. The sequel was ultimately half-hearted and half-baked and wasn't worth the nine-year gap wait. In truth, the reception to the third film was always going to work against Expend4bles, but audiences deserved something better than the lazy retread it offered.

Ritchie Could Give The Expendables The Reinvention It Badly Needs

The Expendables really need rescuing

A franchise can recover from a disappointing sequel, but the problem is, The Expendables 4 was supposed to be that recovery. Now, it would be hard to picture viewers getting excited about another installment that was just more of the same. The Expendables franchise badly needs to be reworked, but that doesn't mean a total reboot either. Instead, it needs to take the elements that work - including Statham, naturally - but find a new angle. That's where Guy Ritchie could fit in.

The property needs a new creative voice to guide it, and for movies that are supposed to be homages to yesteryear's action hits, they're often lacking in memorable setpieces, characters or one-liners. They feel like they are reliving old glories rather than creating iconic moments of their own. The next Expendables must shed this mindset; it should be a lean, mean stripped-back mission movie that returns to the brief of Stallone's original.

Ritchie has a gift for filming practical action and he's proven he's great with ensemble casts many times. Given that he practically handed Statham his acting career, the two have a level of trust that would work in the next Expendables' favor. Of course, the question remains of whether Ritchie would even be interested in taking on The Expendables, considering how badly received the most recent outings have been.

Will Another Expendables Actually Happen?

Updates on The Expendables 5 have gone very quiet

Prior to the release of The Expendables 3, there was talk of another entry and an all-female spinoff dubbed The Expendabelles. The reception to part three put those plans on ice, but it always felt like the series would return. The same can't be said following Expendables 4's dire performance. Not even devotees of the past films are itching for more, and The Expendables would need a dramatic overhaul to lure fans and newcomers to theaters. That's not an impossible task, but it's tricky to see how producers could pull it off.

With The Expendables 4 having bombed so thoroughly, there likely won't be another film for at least a few years. There's a chance it could continue as a TV series or even as an STV property, but there's no sign of life on the next chapter. Given that the first two movies were solid hits, it's a property that has inbuilt value, so another sequel is inevitable. Whether it features familiar faces like Statham or Stallone is another question.

If Ritchie isn't interested, perhaps the series needs an action director from the era The Expendables is homaging, be it John Woo, Michael Bay, Renny Harlin, John McTiernan etc. If Stallone does return, he could limit his time in front of the camera to direct once again. That said, a new voice would be more than welcome.

Source: The Numbers

The Expendables

Created by

David Callaham

First Film

The Expendables

Cast

Jason Statham , Curtis Jackson , Megan Fox , Dolph Lundgren , tony jaa , Iko Uwais , Randy Couture , Andy Garcia

Video Game(s)

The Expendables 8-Bit , The Expendables 2 Videogame , The Expendables 2: Deploy & Destroy