The Expendables 4 kicked off principal photography at the beginning of October, mere weeks after the new director and cast members were unveiled to the public. With these new faces accompanying familiar ones like Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham, it looks like The Expendables 4 will serve as a relaunch of sorts for the action franchise. However, word’s come in that there have already been multiple injuries during the course of production.
In the midst of The Expendables 4 shooting in Greece, Millennium Films, the production company behind the action flick, has shared that during the preproduction phase, a painter fell from a great height and required hospital treatment, but has since recovered. The second injury, which happened more recently, involved a stuntman accidentally backing up a slow-moving vehicle over a camera assistant’s foot, though the assistant has also recovered. Here’s what Millennium had to say to Deadline:
The production of Expendables 4 is taking every precaution to ensure the safety of all crew.
This isn't the first time people have been harmed, or worse, on the set of an Expendables movie. During The Expendables 2’s shoot in 2011, a stuntman named Kun Liu was killed while performing a scene on an inflatable boat involving a staged explosion, and another stuntman was critically injured. Some of the franchise’s leading stars, like Sylvester Stallone, Terry Crews and Antonio Banderas, have talked before about injuries they’ve suffered while making these movies, with Stallone specifically saying during The Expendables 3 promotional tour that he’s broken his neck and spine, dislocated his shoulders and even once fell on his back and “had to put some metal in there.”
Hopefully The Expendables 4 team won’t have to deal with any more injuries before filming concludes, although when that will be is unclear. Sylvester Stallone, however, completed his work on the movie in mid-October, indicating his character, Barney Ross, won’t have as big of a role compared to the last three movies. Instead, it looks like Jason Statham’s Lee Christmas will be taking over as the lead character, though like Ross, he’s been part of this franchise since the beginning.
We’ll also reunite with Dolph Lundgren’s Gunner Jensen and Randy Couture’s Toll Road in The Expendables 4, while the lineup of newcomers includes Iko Uwais, Eddie Hall, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Megan Fox, Tony Jaa, Andy García, Sheila Shah, Jacob Scipio and Levy Tran. Other than Uwais being confirmed as the main villain (reportedly a former soldier-turned-arms dealer who’s built a private army), none of the other roles have been disclosed. Need for Speed’s Scott Waugh is directing, while Spenser Cohen came up with the story and worked on the script with Max Adams and John Joseph Connolly.
The Expendables 4 is expected to come out in 2022, but doesn’t have a release date assigned yet, so keep checking back with CinemaBlend for that information and other updates about the project. Learn what movies have been officially slated for next year with our 2022 release schedule.
