Expendables Is Officially Back in Development After a Decade in Limbo

Eclectic Pictures and Hollywood Ventures Group are moving forward with Expendabelles, an all-female spinoff of The Expendables franchise. The project, which has been stuck in development hell since 2012, was formally announced this week at the Cannes Film Festival as part of a new slate of “globally commercial films.”

The news was unveiled at Cannes, with producers now in active talks with distribution partners, financiers, and creative talent. Producer Heidi Jo Markel of Eclectic Pictures addressed the revival directly.

“We are thrilled to finally bring Expendabelles to life alongside our incredible partners at Hollywood Ventures Group, who share our passion for reimagining this property on a much larger cinematic scale,” Markel said in a statement. “There has always been a strong global appetite for female-driven action franchises, and we believe the time is now to introduce a bold new generation of elite operatives into this universe.”

HVG co-founder Glenn Gainor, who will produce alongside Markel, added his own framing. “We see this as an opportunity to honor the DNA of what made The Expendables resonate globally, while evolving it in a way that feels both timely and commercially compelling,” Gainor told The Hollywood Reporter. “This is a world audiences know, but we’re introducing them to it in a way they’ve never seen before.”

The project is currently in the packaging phase. No director, writer, or cast has been announced.

Expendabelles Has Been in the Works Since 2012

The idea was first floated in October 2012, when actresses including Milla Jovovich, Cameron Diaz, and Meryl Streep were in early talks to join a version co-written by 10 Things I Hate About You scribes Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. Director Robert Luketic, known for Legally Blonde, was brought on to helm a Millennium Films version in early 2014, built around female operatives posing as call girls to rescue a nuclear scientist being held hostage. That version never made it to production.

By November 2022, Millennium Films president Jeffrey Greenstein officially confirmed the project was shelved, citing the persistent challenge of having to “justify” why a team of only women would anchor the story. The explanation arrived four years after Ocean’s 8 had done exactly that — without issue.

The newly revived version is a full reimagining, serving as an origin story set in the late 1990s during the height of Y2K-era tension and geopolitical uncertainty. The executive producer team includes HVG co-founder Sandy Climan, Thirteenth Studios’ Joe Smith, Nelly Kim, Julie Kroll, Stephen R. Foreht, and John Yarincik.

The Franchise Is Looking for New Life

The Expendables franchise spans four films released between 2010 and 2023. The poor critical and commercial performance of Expend4bles, coupled with Sylvester Stallone‘s departure from the series, left the franchise’s future significantly uncertain. It’s a pattern that has become familiar across action franchises — sequels that stumble and force studios back to the drawing board, as BriefLedger’s review of Mortal Kombat 2 noted earlier this month. Across all four films, The Expendables series has collected over $855 million at the global box office.

The spinoff is designed to stand on its own while expanding the franchise’s mythology. No production timeline has been set.