Five Actors Who Should Be In Expendables 3

Say what you will about Sly and his Expendables, even if you’ve got no time for muscles and guns, anyone can appreciate the ultimate throwback to 80s action mayhem. Sly’s already managed to gather most of the action heroes together, and with recent news that Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes are being touted for roles in THE EXPENDABLES 3, we here at THN thought we’d give Avi Lerner a hand with casting the third installment. Here’s our five possible picks for new additions to Sly’s rag-tag team of Shooty McShooterson’s. Honourable mentions go out to Danny Trejo, Roddy Piper, Bill Paxton and Hulk “Mr Nanny” Hogan, who should all definitely be in THE EXPENDABLES 3. And Keith David.

Kurt Russell

No-one does eyepatches quite like Snake Plissken does eyepatches. Kurt Russell definitely needs to be an Expendable, or perhaps a turn as villain might be interesting to watch.

There was talk of Sly offering Kurt Russell a role in the original Expendables film, and Kurt turned it down because apparently he didn’t want to do an “ensemble” film. Poor excuse if you ask us. As well as teaming up with Sly for buddy-cop adventure TANGO & CASH, Kurt Russell has taken on a man-eating, shape-shifting alien and escaped from both New York and LA (shutting down the entire world in the process). Bad to the bone.

Chow Yun-Fat

While Sly was “curing the criminal disease” in COBRA, over in Hong Kong John Woo was pioneering an action style that became known as “gun-fu” with his leading man, Chow Yun-Fat. Films such as THE KILLER and HARD BOILED featured Chow throwing himself over tables and leaping onto hospital trollies, shooting everything in sight. Gun-fu has since been integrated heavily into western action films and can be seen in THE MATRIX, EQUILIBRIUM, DESPERADO and WANTED.

Carl Weathers

Why hasn’t Carl Weathers already been an Expendable? The legendary Apollo Creed should be top of Sly’s list of who to bring back from the 80s. How can anyone forget the emotional, gut-wrenching journey Rocky and Apollo experienced, going from sworn enemies to the best of friends.

As well as being hunted by an invisible alien with Arnie, Carl “Action Jackson” Weathers has also coached Adam Sandler in golf and more recently turned up in ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, begging for change. Give the man a role Sly!

Steven Seagal

Although no-one really watches Steven Seagal films anymore, everybody still knows about the infamous ponytail. The last ten years haven’t been particularly kind to the stone-faced Aikido master, but Seagal’s turn as Danny Trejo’s ex-partner-turned-drug-lord in MACHETE has landed him back in the spotlight.

Ripe time for a comeback, and what better way to do it than going toe-to-toe with Jet Li and Randy Couture. He’s just a cook remember.

Tony Jaa

Back in 2003, Tony Jaa considerably upped the ante for martial arts films with a stunning showcase of stunts, fights and general chaos in ONG-BAK. Utilising his native Thai fighting style Muay Thai, Tony has shown an incredible level of athleticism and acrobatic skill in both WARRIOR KING and the ONG-BAK trilogy. If Sly can wrangle the Thai action star into E:3 and give him some better lines than “needing more money for his family”, we’re onto a winner.

THE EXPENDABLES 2 is released in cinemas on the 17th August 2012.