It’s been a decade since The Expendables 3 limped onto screens with a PG-13 rating that nobody asked for. Now producer Les Weldon and director Scott Waugh want you to know they’ve gone back to basics. “We need to give the fans that visceral, carnal experience,” Weldon says, “that freight train coming at them at 120 miles an hour.” Translation: more blood, more explosions, fewer compromises.
Getting there took nearly ten years of wrangling stars and scripts. “It’s complicated when you’ve got this many people,” Weldon admits. “The schedules alone are like solving a Rubik’s Cube.” The result is Expendables 4: Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, plus fresh faces like Megan Fox, Andy Garcia, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.
And yes, they stuck one of his songs in the movie. “People said, ‘But he’s not playing 50 Cent,’” Waugh recalls. “I said, this is Expendables. Hell yes we are putting a 50 Cent track in there.”
Waugh’s job is apparently dreaming up ways to make Hot Wheels sets come to life. “I’ll look at what’s on the page and think, ‘Okay, placeholders,’” he says. “Then I go, how about we mount automatic weapons on motorcycles and have Robbie Madison flip one upside down on a boat deck while firing? They actually say yes. Then I have to figure out how to pull it off.”
Of course, no Expendables film would be complete without a whiff of geopolitics. The script predates today’s headlines, but the familiar America-versus-Russia tension still pops up. “It wasn’t intentional,” Weldon insists. “It just happens that real life caught up with us.” Waugh leans into the absurdity: “It’s escapism. The world is a mess. This is two hours to smile while things blow up.”
The newcomers weren’t just stunt casting. “It’s not about grabbing random big names,” Weldon says. “If it doesn’t move the story forward, it doesn’t belong.” Which is why Antonio Banderas, sidelined by scheduling, got replaced with a son-of character instead of a cameo. “We wanted it to make sense.”
And if you’re wondering about Expendables 5—don’t. “We can’t think that far ahead,” Weldon shrugs. “This one is like a peace offering. If the fans accept it, then maybe. But it only works if we’ve earned it.”
For now, the boys are back, the bikes have guns, and the soundtrack swings from Blue Öyster Cult to Thin Lizzy to—yes—50 Cent. As Waugh sums up, “You get to be a kid again. Only instead of toy cars, you’re playing with real people.”
Watch the interview above and then check out the trailer below.
