The Original Choice For The Expendables 3's Villain (Before Mel Gibson)
Here's the original choice for The Expendables 3's villain, before Mel Gibson was cast in the role. The Expendables was billed as the movie that would return to the kind of R-rated, practical effects-driven action films of the 1980s and 1990s. Sylvester Stallone created and helmed the first movie, and over the years, the movies have collected a vast number of action icons, including Jet Li, Bruce Wills, Wesley Snipes, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger and many more.
While The Expendables movies have proven to be enjoyable guilty pleasures, they've never lived up to the action classics they harken back to either. That was especially true of The Expendables 3 from 2014, which is viewed as the worst of the Sylvester Stallone movie franchise thus far. This third entry cast Mel Gibson as Conrad Stonebanks, a vicious arms trader and ex-member of the titular team. The Expendables 3 was a misguided effort to make the series more mainstream, with the sequel being a more lighthearted, PG-13 affair. This move ultimately backfired, and in addition to bad reviews, it was a box-office letdown.
Related: Why Jean-Claude Van Damme Rejected The Expendables (But Accepted The Sequel)
For a time it appeared the film marked the end of the franchise, though The Expendables 4 was later greenlit and is on target for a 2022 release. The Expendables series has always been ambitious with the action legends it tried to recruit, though several like Jackie Chan and Kurt Russell passed on the chance to appear. For The Expendables 3, major names rumored to be linked to the sequel included Clint Eastwood — who once passed on Superman — and Jack Nicholson, neither of which sounded likely. However, Stallone later confirmed to IGN that Nicholson was one
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