‘The Expendabelles’: The franchise Sigourney Weaver refused to be a part of
It’s become a rite of passage for any major star to recur in at least one notable franchise throughout their career. Still, Sigourney Weaver has broadened her horizons much further than the iconic role of Ellen Ripley.
As well as headlining the first four instalments in the Alien series, Weaver has appeared in a quartet of Ghostbusters flicks. She has played two different roles in James Cameron’s Avatar and its sequel, The Way of Water, and even stopped by Marvel as the antagonist of street-level miniseries The Defenders.
Having already brought an iconic ass-kicking hero to life through the inimitable Ripley, Weaver seemed tailor-made for Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables. The premise was built entirely on the back of watching ageing heroes relive their glory days through the medium of bullet-riddled chaos.
At one stage, there were plans afoot for a female-led spinoff, which would have carried the nauseating title of Expendabelles. Producer Avil Lerner ambitiously named Meryl Streep as one of his preferred candidates, but Stallone was so sold on the prospect of Weaver that he even named her publicly and dropped some potential story details.
“With The Expendabelles, we’ve got a situation where we’re in unchartered waters. Do we put all women actresses together, would that really work? Or do we have some women who are actually really known to be tough fighters,” he said to The Hollywood Reporter before referencing Weaver’s presumed role. “So she’d get the house, the kids and my mercenaries!”
Clearly not interested in being the on-screen spouse of Stallone’s Barney Ross, it was revealed in 2014 that Weaver had passed on The Expendabelles. The project continued to circle the drains of development hell for a while before eventually being put out of its misery when the people in charge realised that when the main saga was already running on fumes, trying to drag it out may not have been the wisest course of action.
Part of her hesitation may have been the way in which her initial ascent to action heroism created a vacuum around her in Hollywood. Weaver once explained how difficult it was for her to be known for her gun-toting antics while simultaneously being overlooked for more prestigious dramatic parts.
“It went on and on about Arnold and the other top box-office men and what that meant about their careers,” she noted. “But it didn’t even say, ‘Isn’t it interesting that there’s a woman in the top three?’ They sort of went, like, it was a fluke. I seem to fall between the cracks. I’m not considered a legitimate action hero because I’m a woman. But I’m not considered in the same category with high-toned actresses like Glenn Close and Meryl Streep because I’m an action figure. See what I mean?”
Watch the trailer for The Expendables below.