Sylvester Stallone Bids Farewell To Expendables Franchise

Expendables 4 is shooting right now, but judging by a recent Instagram post, it would seem that we’ve seen the last of one particular character, and a pivotal one at that in Barney Ross, the character played by cinematic legend, Sylvester Stallone.

Sylvester Stallone is enjoying his seventh decade in Hollywood. The star who rose to fame in 1976 with Rocky, has written, directed and produced many films in his entire body of work. And speaking of bodies of work, the man at 75 looks better than most forty year-olds.

Despite his fit frame though, it would seem like he has decided to call his time with the franchise a quits. Stallone has penned and directed many franchise films, he being attached to three of the largest grossing franchises of all-time, the most successful being the Rocky franchise and of course the Rambo franchise. It was in 2010 however, shortly after he had revived both Rocky and Rambo during the 2000s, that he would unearth yet another blockbuster hit.

The Expendables films garnered a lot of attention as the years went on, some of it negative, but they made money for sure. That cannot be denied. Hence reason for a fourth installment.

Now Stallone is involved yes, but according to his Instagram post, he’s leaving way before many of the other castmates are set to leave the set. They’re still filming. Jason Statham, who plays Lee Christmas in the movie, looks to be the new leader now that Stallone’s Barney Ross character is leaving, for whatever reason.

Stallone says that he is:

“Ready to pass the baton on to Jason [Statham] and his capable hands…”

If the 4th film does well, it may be entering into yet another phase of sequels…sequels that Stallone will not be a part of. Sly has talked about yet another Rocky film, and despite saying that he was done with Rambo, he just may be ready to get into that character again as well. He has Samaritan slated to come out, and Expendables 4 is scheduled to be released in 2020 says collider.com.

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