Why isn’t Terry Crews in The Expendables 4?

The Expendables 4 is in cinemas now, but its all-star team is missing one notable member: Terry Crews – so why isn’t he in the movie?

Crews was part of the original Expendables team in 2010, playing wisecracking heavy weapons specialist Hale Caesar. Some critics felt the movie didn’t live up to its testosterone-fuelled potential, but there’s an argument to be made that Crews walks away with the film – just watch the scene of him mowing down a corridor of men with a shotgun while yelling, “Remember this sh*t at Christmas!”

He reprised the role in The Expendables 2 and the third entry. He was nearly killed off in the latter movie when Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) shoots him, but Sylvester Stallone and the producers had a last-minute change of heart and decided to let him live on in the story.

However, he’s nowhere to be seen in The Expendables 4, nor is he ever mentioned – so, why isn’t Terry Crews in it?

Why isn’t Terry Crews in The Expendables 4?

Terry Crews refused to appear in The Expendables 4 after a producer reportedly threatened “trouble” if the actor didn’t withdraw a civil suit over sexual assault allegations.

In 2017, amid the emerging Harvey Weinstein scandal, Crews revealed that he’d been groped by Adam Venit, the former head of William Morris Endeavor (WME), at a Hollywood party the year prior.

He didn’t report it out of fear of being “ostracized” and blacklisted, and after an investigation, WME concluded that it was an isolated incident. Venit was demoted and returned to work following a one-month suspension, which prompted Crews to tweet: “SOMEONE GOT A PASS.”

Crews then filed a lawsuit against Venit and WME, but prosecutors didn’t file any charges against him, and the suit has since been settled.

In 2018, Crews delivered testimony to a senate committee in support of the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Bill of Rights, in which he claimed he’d been threatened over his allegations against Venit.

“I’d done three movies called the Expendables with Sylvester Stallone. The producer of that film called my manager and asked him to drop my case in order for me to be in the fourth installment of the movie. And if I didn’t, there would be trouble,” he explained.

In a later tweet, Crews revealed the producer to be Avi Lerner, who has also been accused of sexual harassment. When asked if he’d be appearing in the movie, he said: “No. Simply because this same producer is under his own… investigation. Abusers protect abusers — and this is one thing I had to decide, whether I was going to draw the line on. Am I going to be a part of this or am I gonna take a stand, and there are projects I had to turn down.”

Crews also told BuzzFeed that he didn’t receive any support from his Expendables co-stars. “No words from anybody. Nothing. Believe me, nobody saw that coming. Nobody thought that I was gonna put that out there,” he said.

“People don’t understand that Hollywood is a very violent place. The best way to put it is that it’s like a plantation. You use extreme violence. You see a lot of people who never work again. For even speaking up the whole thing is that they cut your head off so that the next person doesn’t speak.

“What I’ve been doing is just exposing. If this is the end of my career, just end it now. Cause I’m gonna keep living, I’m gonna keep doing my thing. But if I don’t do another Expendables, then let’s not do another one. I’m OK with that.”

The Expendables 4 is in cinemas now. You can check out our other coverage here.