Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham struck a close friendship both on and off-screen thanks to their involvement in The Expendables franchise, with Barney Ross and Lee Christmas heading up the aging band of mercenaries as the two action icons bonded away from set.
For a while, it looked as though we’d never see Barney’s lucky ring or Lee’s beret ever again, with any talk of a fourth installment rooted more in hopeful optimism rather than any sort of tangible reality. Just weeks after teasing that long-gestating Statham-centric spinoff A Christmas Story was close to getting the green light, Sly surprised us all when The Expendables 4 was announced instead.
Production is now underway in the United Kingdom, and when he’s not working on the script during dinner, Stallone is clearly having a blast being reunited with his old pal, as you can see via his Instagram below.
Megan Fox, 50 Cent, Tony Jaa and Andy Garcia are boarding the franchise alongside Expendables veterans Stallone, Statham, Randy Couture and Dolph Lundgren, but there may well be more surprise guests in-store looking at the cavalcade of unexpected names to have appeared throughout the series so far.