Sly In A Supporting Role?

As we are gearing up for EX4 production to kick off soon, more news is coming out. Today the stunt coordinator of the movie posted a picture of the script’s cover. It’s interesting to note that the script’s author is now Max Adam and no longer Gregory Poirier who originally penciled the text in 2018.

What is even more interesting is that Max Adam was linked to a rumoured spin-off version of The Expendables titled “A Christmas Story”. The spin-off project was reported back in 2020 by a not so well known website with quite some details, and eventually taken up by other movie outlets. But the lack of follow up from Sly or any other stakeholder of the franchise led the news to be deemed as simply a piece of rumor and no one paid any more attention to it. 

Now thinking back, this website had got the name of the scriptwriter right which can’t be a coincidence since he’s not a famous or renown author. Why make up a story with a name like that and what are the chances that he actually ends up being the scriptwriter for EX4! I’m starting to believe that the story of a spin-off movie might have had some actual merit to it. 

It’s very possible that the producers at some point intended to make 2 separate movies, one sequel to the original film and one spin-off with Statham in the lead role  in which they close the chapter on Sly and the older crew. The sequel never took off for all the reasons we know by now (Sly’s disagreement with Avi, lack of interest from Sly who wanted to focus on more personal projects, etc); plus Sly was not getting any younger and Statham was getting more famous…the spin-off might have had become the main project ahead of an actual sequel. Then Covid hit and everything was put on hold.

Now that the project has been revived, we seem to be getting an EX4 but from the author of the “Christmas Story”. What happened to Poirier’s script? Couture did mention that the script from 2018 has made place for a new one. Well it sounds like we might be getting an EX4 that feels like a spin-off where Statham has the lead role and Sly takes the back seat. It wouldn’t be surprising given the low level of interest and involvement that Sly has shown towards this project until now. Plus he’s not any younger to play the lead in an all star action movie. The supporting roles in large productions suit him well now, Creed was the perfect proof. EX2 could be the old school action version of Creed 2 where Sly passes the baton to Statham and bows out with class. The article that first brought out the “spin-off” news did mention an emotional experience for Sly’s fans. This might be it. 

Whatever the direction the movie is taking we should find out soon. Until then, we’ll have fun speculating!