The Expendables movies are all about bombastic happenings and over-the-top action. In a recent interview concerning Expendables 4, a star in the film reported this sequel has twice the budget as previous films.

Lundgren attributes both the franchise’s success and budget to the sheer number of personalities and stars.

“It is special because you have all of these different personalities on set,” Lundgren said. “Usually, in a big movie, you may have three or four leads. Even in Aquaman, you got four, maybe, main characters, but here you have half a dozen, or almost 10. In some of them, there’s been 10 people…. Anywhere you turn, there’s somebody famous. So it’s exciting, as an actor. That’s what makes a franchise special.”

Additionally, there’s very little CGI, so the props, explosions, etc. are mostly done by the actors and equipment. “You know, it’s like an old-school movie, where you do a lot of your own stunts, and you fire full blanks on set. There’s not that much CGI in that picture.”

Dolph Lundgren Commented on what Keeps ‘Expendables’ Sequels Fresh
With the Expendables franchise about to release its fourth film, you might think it would grow stale or stagnant. Dolph Lundgren recently commented on that very subject and gave his opinion on what keeps the movies fresh.

Speaking to Looper late last year, Lundgren talked about what it was like working with Sylvester Stallone and all the other stars on the set. At one point, Looper asked how the series keeps appealing to new generations of moviegoers, to which Lundgren replied they’re quite lucky in that regard.

“It’s a funny thing,” he said. “I do an Expendables, which is obviously a totally new audience because the kids, they don’t know who the hell I am. They’ve seen me in Aquaman, but I’m just a guy with a beard. So you know, with Expendables, kids get to experience that kind of macho action from back when I started. When you carried these guns and the more ammo you had, the better. It was a bit of overkill. Biceps, big knives. I think a lot of kids probably, that’s why the first one did well, because kids haven’t seen that before. And they’re like, “Oh, this is good. That guy just got hit by a tank.”