The Expendableshas potentially run its course as a franchise after 2023’sExpend4bles,and it’s a shame that the movie series will end without featuring an action star who’s always felt like a perfect fit, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The wrestler-turned-actor once admitted he wouldn’t mind starring in anExpendablesmovie, and his casting would have fixed the worst problem that the series has faced since its first film. With one notable exception,The Expendableshas always been short on memorable villains to challenge Sylvester Stallone and his band of aging action heroes.
Dwayne Johnson can definitely pull off an action villain, as seen with his performance asFast Five’s Luke Hobbs, thebest villain of theFast and Furiousmovie franchise. It would have made perfect sense, then, to cast him as a villain in one of theExpendablesmovies, working against Stallone’s Barney Ross in one of his missions. Alas, Stallone andExpendablescreator David Callaham appear to havemissed their opportunity to cast The Rock in a role he was apparently interested in playing, leaving the franchise with arguably just one memorable villain across its four movies.
Dwayne Johnson Would Have Liked To Play A Villain In The Expendables
The Rock Declared His Wish To Play An Antagonist To Stallone’s Character In 2014
It was during an Ask Me Anything session onRedditin 2014 thatDwayne Johnson first declared his wish to be anExpendablesvillain. When asked whether he was going to joinThe Expendableson their next mission, he turned the question on its head and instead answered that he wanted to go after Barney Ross, Jason Statham’s Lee Christmas, and the other members of the team. Unfortunately,Johnson’s dreamExpendablesrole never came to pass, and it now looks as though the franchise has probably passed him by.
The Rock’s presence as a villain was sorely lacking in at least three out of the fourExpendablesmovies, in which Eric Roberts, Mel Gibson, and Andy Garcia were less than convincing as their chief antagonists. Whilethe Expendables franchise focused its attention on gathering together a star-studded ensembleof action stars without precedent, including the likes of Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Terry Crews, and Bruce Willis, it rarely found villains capable of matching the lot of them.
Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Character In The Second Movie Was A Real Villain
The one exception to the franchise’s lackluster villains came withThe Expendables 2, which is by far the bestExpendablesmovie. Even before shooting began, Sylvester Stallone was making it known that he’d been waiting to have a showdown with Jean-Claude Van Damme onscreen for a long time. Two of the biggest action stars of the 1980s predictably go at each other in the movie’s climactic scene, and it doesn’t disappoint,offering up exactly the kind of hand-to-hand combat we’d been waiting forsince the firstExpendableswas announced.
All 8 Villains Played By Jean-Claude Van Damme, Ranked
Although action star Jean-Claude Van Damme made a name for himself as a hero, he’s also had some incredible villainous roles throughout the years.
In the end, Stallone beats Van Damme, but it’s not before the latter is able to show what he can do in arguably the coolest scene in the entire franchise.The Expendables 2’s Jean Villainis the only main villain in the series who can genuinely be classed as a fighter. Even more importantly, however, it’s clear the amount of effort that Van Damme has put into creating this slippery machiavel, who appears to take sadistic pleasure in making others afraid of him.
Fast Five Proves That The Rock Would’ve Been A Great Expendables Villain
Dwayne Johnson Would Have Gone Toe-To-Toe With Sly Stallone
WhileJean-Claude Van Damme’s Jean Vilainis unspeakably evil, Dwayne Johnson could have brought something different to the table as a villain in anotherExpendablesmovie. AsThe Rock shows in his firstFast and Furiousappearance, 2011’sFast Five, he’s more than ready to go toe-to-toewith any action star as an antagonist, even if they’re Vin Diesel. What was more impressive, though, was that Johnson’s character, Luke Hobbs, was not inherently evil. He was ultimately a special agent just trying to do his job.
it would have also been fun to see Johnson playing an actual villain, something the actor rarely does.
This nuanced approach to an antagonist would have served theExpendablesfranchise well, given that Barney Ross and his team are ultimately mercenaries who aren’t necessarily on the side of any state. It would be an interesting change of angle to see the Expendables fighting a branch of the US state, as Dom Toretto and his gang do inFast Five. That said, it would have also been fun to see Johnson playing an actual villain, something he rarely does.
