Sylvester Stallone’s time as part of the Expendables team has come to an end, and he doesn’t have a replacement franchise yet – but that’s good for his career. Sylvester Stallone continues to be one of the biggest action stars in the film industry, a place he earned throughout the 1970s and 1980s with a variety of action roles. Stallone’s career as an actor began in 1969 as an extra, and his big break arrived in 1976 when he played Rocky Balboa in the sports drama Rocky, directed by John G. Avildsen and written by Stallone.
Stallone’s status as an action star grew with movies like First Blood (and the subsequent Rambo films) and Cobra, and he maintained his place as one of the biggest action stars in the business through the 1990s with movies like Cliffhanger, Demolition Man, and The Specialist. Although he continued working in the 2000s in different action movies, Stallone’s career got another boost in the 2010s with the launch of the Expendables saga, where he played Barney Ross, and the Creed movies, where he reprised his role as Rocky Balboa. Stallone’s time as Barney Ross is now over, and while he doesn’t have a replacement franchise for The Expendables yet, this is a good change in his career.
Sylvester Stallone’s Upcoming Franchises Won’t Rival Expendables’ Success Or Action
Sylvester Stallone is responsible for the Expendables saga, as he not only starred in it alongside other action stars like Bruce Willis and Jason Statham, but also directed the first movie and co-wrote it with David Callaham. Although Stallone didn’t direct the sequels, he co-wrote the scripts for The Expendables 2 and The Expendables 3, but he quit The Expendables 4 in 2017 over creative differences. However, Stallone returned for the fourth Expendables movie but had a very small role in it, with the purpose of passing the franchise’s lead on to Statham.
With The Expendables out of the way, Stallone doesn’t have a franchise to expand or rival it. Stallone wasn’t part of Creed III though he was credited as a producer, and it’s unclear if he will continue to be a part of this side of the Rocky franchise as it continues to expand. While Stallone has a couple of projects planned and lined up for the near future, none of them are at the level of The Expendables nor have the potential to become a franchise that can rival the Expandables’ success and action, and even though this might seem strange for one of the biggest action stars currently active in the film industry, it’s actually a good shift in Stallone’s career.
Not Having An Expendables Replacement Franchise Is Good For Stallone’s Career
Stallone leaving The Expendables and not having a franchise that can replace it is good for his career as it leaves plenty of room for other projects. Among those already announced or teased is a sequel to Demolition Man, but there are other projects with which Stallone can move past the action stuff from past decades that have defined his career. Stallone has expressed interest in making an adaptation of Nelson DeMille’s novel The Lion’s Game and a passion project about a film about Edgar Allan Poe’s life, which could now finally come to life. No more Expendables and no replacement for it can give Sylvester Stallone’s career a new and fresh boost, but it’s to be seen where his new projects will take him.