Real-life martial arts expert and action star Steven Seagal is now in the latest casting rumors for the upcoming action ensemble “The Expendables 4.”
Seagal becomes the latest addition to the casting rumor mill for the fourth installment of “The Expendables” franchise featuring the top action stars of Hollywood including Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, and a whole lot more.
Among those sports figures and actors who have made the casting rumors for “The Expendables 4” include Hulk Hogan, Dwayne ‘The Rock” Johnson, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Pierce Brosnan, and John Cusack.
For a while, there were also rumors about the possible inclusion of Chinese martial arts superstar Jackie Chan and Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao. Eventually, those speculations proved to be inaccurate.
Having the three former wrestling superstars, the former James Bond actor, John Cusack, and even Steven Seagal in the movie may have some semblance of truth to it but everything remains as speculation at this time pending the confirmation from the producers or the lead stars of “The Expendables 4.”
The things that are confirmed
But there are also several things that are already confirmed for “The Expendables 4” including its release date of 2017.
The film shall also be filmed in China since a good portion of the $100 million funding of the movie will be bankrolled by a Chinese interest. Filming shall also begin this coming fall according to regular Randy Couture in a post on Twitter last March, notes Yibada.
“The Expendables” franchise has a good fan base in China, which actually made up more than half of the profit of “The Expendables 3” released in 2014.
The third installment of the movie registered the least profit it became an unfortunate victim of film piracy.
The biggest market
Sometime in the fourth quarter of last year, it has already been reported that production companies Nu Image and Millennium had already made pre-sale distribution deals of “The Expendables 4” in China.
It seems that the producers have already learned their lesson from the debacle suffered by “The Expendables 3” so they are keeping everything about “The Expendables 4” under wrap just to be on the safe side.
The rumors about Stallone not returning for “The Expendables 4” came out because the information about the movie was few and far in between. At that point, Stallone was making the headlines because of his nomination from the Academy Awards.
So putting two in two together, some came out with the idea that if he wins the Oscars, he would then focus more on “Creed 2” rather than “The Expendables 4,” thus the reports saying that he would take a backseat in the action ensemble franchise.
However, action movie critics believe that those are empty rumors because they know that even Sylvester Stallone is aware that if his character is not in the movie, The Expendables as a band of mercenaries, shall no longer be complete.
The last three films saw Sylvester Stallone as Barney Ross, backstopped by Jason Statham as Lee Christmas, as the obvious leaders of The Expendables. While there are plenty of big-name action stars in the movie, it is obvious that Sly calls the shots and that is likely to remain in “The Expendables 4,” note the critics.
“The Expendables” movie franchise is Stallone’s baby and he took the effort to bring other action stars onboard as the series continued and that is why it has become a great action franchise that it is now.
Despite the not-so-good performance of “The Expendables 3” in the box-office when it hit theaters in 2014, the main reason for it is that a pirated version of the film came out before it officially hit theaters thus causing a negative impact on the movie’s ticket sales.