There's Only One Way Dolph Lundgren Would Return As Gunner Jensen For Expendables 5

Before this article gets underway, let's address the elephant in the room, which is: will there be an "Expendables 5" ("Expend5bles?") at all? The fourth installment, released a year ago this month, got its butt handed to it at the box office, making barely half of its budget back. Adding insult to injury were the reviews and social media posts, in which the film got called so many negative and nasty things as to imply that no one had any love for it at all. This wasn't quite a unanimous opinion: after all, you happen to be in the virtual presence of one of the few people who appreciated "Expend4bles" for what it was, and even /Film's own Witney Seibold declared that it might be the best in the franchise (with the caveat that the franchise was not any good to begin with, but still). Despite this, it seems highly unlikely that the Expendables will be called to action again anytime soon.

However, this is not the first time that sentiment has been expressed, for as Seibold correctly implies, the franchise has never exactly been a unilaterally beloved one and has already come back from the dead several times. While the series began as a "The Avengers"-esque metafictional excuse to bring together '80s and '90s action stars in one film, the original movie's director, star, and co-writer, Sylvester Stallone, wasn't so keen to simply rest on that gimmick. Thus, the first three "Expendables" movies, while allowing each star to literally flex their muscles and play around with their on- and off-screen personas, also attempted to tell a story about warriors who may be past their prime, and whether or not they still have value.

According to Dolph Lundgren, who plays the mercurial Gunner Jensen in the franchise, there's only one way that he'd come back for a fifth installment, should it happen. Unsurprisingly, it has to do with the man who tried to infuse some heart into what could've otherwise been a franchise based solely on gimmickry: Stallone.

To be specific, Stallone never completely left the "Expendables" franchise. He appears in all four films, and even though his role is significantly reduced in "Expend4bles," his character of Barney Ross still plays a key part in the plot. Even though most of the film sees Ross having been apparently killed off, he returns to literally save the day in the end. It's possible that some of this narrative sleight-of-hand has to do with whatever changes were occurring behind the scenes of the movie: when principal photography wrapped in October of 2021, Stallone made an Instagram post that seemed to spell out his departure from the franchise, indicating that he was passing the baton of the leader of the Expendables over to Jason Statham and his character of Lee Christmas. Given that "Expend4bles" ends with Barney alive and reunited with his team, it's possible that this could've been either an intentional misdirection for the fans or an after-the-fact reconception of where things were going to go. The latter has happened before, most notably on "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," which originally was going to see Tom Cruise hand the reins over to Jeremy Renner, only for that plan to change before the film was finished.

In any case, "Expend4bles" was the first installment of the series to have minimal involvement from Stallone, a factor that Lundgren believes contributed to the film's issues. As such, when he spoke to Screen Rant earlier this year, Lundgren stipulated that he would return for a fifth film if Stallone was given control over the film once again:

"Yeah, if Sly's in charge, I think he's working on his version of another chapter with these guys. If he's in charge, then yeah, I'm sure it would be fun to work on it."

It'd be a little too precious to call the "Expendables" series personal films for Stallone, but it's undeniable that he lent the first three movies his own personal touch. The first movie saw him pour almost everything he had into it, with the stress and hardships of making the film sending him to the hospital numerous times. Although directors Simon West and Patrick Hughes took over the second and third films, respectively, Stallone still had a large hand in the scripts for each installment, ensuring a continuity of tone, character, and especially theme.

It's that theme that makes the "Expendables" films unique, the idea of men (and women) who've known violence all their lives trying to come to terms with their abilities and their legacies. Passing the torch has always been a big aspect of the movies, yet "Expend4bles" attempted to pass that torch laterally to Lee Christmas, making it a bit more of a Statham vehicle and leaning on another theme, the idea of a mistrust of authority, rather than on the previously more dominant themes of the melancholy of aging and the never-ending scourge of injustice and oppression rearing its head. If Stallone were to come back to give the Expendables one last ride, it would certainly feel more of a piece and more special than the fourth installment did.

Yet, aside from the sentiment from Lundgren (and possibly much of the rest of the main cast), Stallone's return to the "Expendables" isn't a foregone necessity. This series is the action movie equivalent to the "Scream" films, a way for the stars and filmmakers to comment on the tropes and trends of the genre that have gone by and what they've been replaced with. The "Scream" series has proven it doesn't necessarily need its initial cast of characters to continue (even though it's currently going through its own confused moment believing that it actually does), and the "Expendables" films could very likely continue with new faces at the forefront. Perhaps Lundgren is right, however, and it's going to take Stallone coming back to steer things on course. Will the boys be back in town? Only time will tell.