Stallone has reportedly walked away from The Expendables franchise…

Of all the characters in The Expendables cast who we figured were, em, expendable, we never saw Sylvester Stallone as one of them.

But it seems he is just that.

Deadline have reported that the actor, who has already starred in three movies in the franchise as well as directing and writing the first one (and co-writing the others) and was considered pretty much the face of the franchise, has walked.

Stallone has apparently faced some problems with the fourth installment: “He has withdrawn from taking part in the fourth installment, even though, sources said, it would have meant the biggest upfront payday in his career at north of $20 million. The reason? He and Nu Image/Millennium chief Avi Lerner could not find common ground on a new director, on the script and on certain qualitative elements of the film. That went right down to the selection of the CGI house to handle visual effects. The franchise has used Lerner’s own VFX house, Nu Boyana in Bulgaria.”

Word is that Stallone was afraid that the new movie wouldn’t live up to the franchise’s potential and therefore wanted to be distanced from the new movie as, after the success of Creed, he didn’t want to be associated with a franchise that was dwindling.

However, a slight ray of hope is that Lerner himself, who apparently falls out with Stallone on these movies regularly before making up with him over a cigar, still believes the movie will happen: “We’ve got disagreements with Sly, but we’ve had them for over a year and a half,” he told Deadline. “Right now, each one has an opinion. We agreed on 95% of things, but there are certain things in production we don’t agree on. I don’t think it’s over, but write whatever you want. In my opinion, it’s not dead.”

Despite this, we’re hearing Stallone is done… but we reckon, like the franchise itself, pretty much anything can happen.

Let us know what you think.