The Expendables 4 will not see the whole team return, and the who have left might have been convinced to another group of mercenaries. The Expendables franchise first exploded onto cinema screens in 2010, with Sylvester Stallone putting together a huge ensemble of 1980s and 1990s action heroes. The Expendables and The Expendables 2 were both big hits with Stallone teamed with fellow action stars including Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Unfortunately, the PG-13 rating of The Expendables 3 was that movie's undoing as it lost some of its violent impact.
The Expendables 4 has got underway, bringing new stars into the franchise like 50 Cent, Megan Fox, The Raid's Iko Uwais, and Ong Bak's martial artist Tony Jaa. However, of the core Expendables themselves, only Stallone, Statham, Lundgren, and Randy Couture will return. While there are various off-screen reasons for Li, Terry Crews, Wesley Snipes, and others not returning, there could be a narrative reason provided to explain the absence of their characters, one that could potentially involve Arnold Schwarzenegger's mercenary leader Trench Ma.
Barney & Trench Were Friendly Rivals
Though Arnold Schwarzenegger's cameo in The Expendables was brief, it swiftly established a feud between Barney Ross (Stallone) and Trench Ma (Schwarzenegger) early on in the franchise. That continued with Trench's more prominent role in The Expendables 2, but the movie also indicated that the bad blood between them had healed somewhat. Barney and Trench had become more of a competitive pair of mercenaries trying to outdo each other than the bitter rivals they initially appeared to be, and that carried over into The Expendables 3.
Jean-Claude Van Damme ed The Expendables 2 as Jean-Vilan, the villain that forced Barney and Trench to become allies after their partnership. However, there was still a degree of competition between them, as Yin Yang's (Jet Li) role in The Expendables 3 illustrated. Though his appearance was relatively brief, Yang was shown as having ed Trench's team of mercenaries after departing Barney and his allies in The Expendables 2. Barney was not particularly perturbed by this and was simply happy to see Yang again, but it also revealed the competitiveness between Trench and Barney will always be a part of their dynamic.
Yin Yang Had A Reason For Leaving The Expendables
Right from the off, The Expendables showed Yang as the most literally mercenary of the team, repeatedly requesting a pay raise from Barney. Additionally, Yang's relationship with Gunner Jensen (Lundgren) was complicated, with Gunner attempting to kill Yang in The Expendables, though he was later rehabilitated and re-ed the Expendables.
Jet Li's Yang left The Expendables 2 early, with he and Gunner having developed a competitive relationship of their own. While their banter in The Expendables 2 was more good-natured, Yang could simply have decided he needed a break from the team after their early mission in The Expendables 2. Meanwhile, The Expendables 3 showed that the promise of more money from Trench tipped Yang's temporary departure into a permanent one.
Why The Other Expendables Might Have ed Trench's Team
While the Expendables shared a clear bond from their many missions together, they were still mercenaries. Hale Caesar (Crews) and Doc Death (Snipes) might have left for the same reason Yang did with the promise of bigger paydays. Trench's rivalry with Barney might have enticed them to him, especially knowing that another former Expendable was already on the team. There is also the possibility that the Expendables who left might not have done so strictly over money.
In the more The Expendables 3, the younger recruits went through a fair amount of friction with the original , which could have led to a falling out between them and Barney. The Expendables' co-founder Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) split from the team due to his more vicious methods compared to Barney. With Expendables coming and going over the years, and the team originally having had 22 as revealed by Doc Death, the Expendables who left the team might simply have done so over a disagreement with Barney's management rather than being financially motivated.
Jason Statham's Lee Christmas is possibly set to become the new leader of the Expendables, with Stallone's Barney potentially dying in The Expendables 4. That may suggest that the Expendables could potentially re-unite if The Expendables 5 happens, which might even show the full roster of Trench's team. Should the missing Expendables choose to up with Trench in a hypothetical The Expendables 5, Barney, unfortunately, will not get the chance to bid them farewell after Stallone's exit from the franchise following The Expendables 4.
