It doesn’t matter how much anybody loves starring in sequels. There’s nobody this side of Vin Diesel who loves an ongoing franchise more than Sylvester Stallone, with the action icon’s filmography packed to bursting point with follow-ups.
He starred in all five entries in the Rambo series and lent support as Rocky Balboa in the first two Creed spinoffs after headlining six of his own. In addition, Stallone also directed the sequel to Saturday Night Fever, made an uncredited cameo in the French comedy Taxi 3, and played the villain in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over.
Beyond that, he created The Expendables and threw on Barney Ross’ signature beret in all four entries, and played Stakar Ogord in the second and third Guardians of the Galaxy films. Not just that, he also voiced King Shark in The Suicide Squad and confirmed his involvement in the long-awaited successors to both Demolition Man and Cliffhanger.
It hasn’t all been sunshine and roses, though, with Stallone making a point of naming one of his many sequels as “the worst-produced film I have ever had the misfortune to be in”. 2013’s Escape Plan was notable for being the first time he’d ever shared top billing with rival-turned-bestie Arnold Schwarzenegger, which was more than enough to carry it to decent box office success.
Interest in the concept was significantly lessened without the ‘Austrian Oak’, which evidently meant nothing to Stallone. Returning for Escape Plan: Hades, Dave Bautista was drafted in for a by-the-numbers actioner that didn’t even see the inside of a cinema and was subsequently seared into the memory of its leading man as being a black mark on his back catalogue.
Railing against the production team, Stallone blasted the second Escape Plan as “the most horribly produced film”. With that experience so fresh in his mind, what did he end up doing? Why, he returned for the third chapter, The Extractors, the very next year, of course.
The threequel was every bit as monotonously dull as its predecessor, but at least being part of it didn’t cause Stallone to actively lash out. Even Bautista knew the low-budget titles weren’t going to be heralded as bastions of cinematic excellence, but that wasn’t why he agreed to sign on.
“I took this job – I wasn’t crazy about the job – but I took it because I wanted to work with Stallone,” he explained to Comic Book. “Our first scene together, I got in and sat with Stallone, and I said, ‘Look man, I’m not going to be a fanboy today. But tomorrow, I’m probably going to ask you a hundred questions.’ And before we finish that scene, I had already contradicted myself, and I just wanted to ask question after question.”
Ironically, had he simply done nothing and waited around, then he’d have ended up collaborating with Stallone anyway when James Gunn brought him in for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which would have saved both actors a lot of hassle.