The trailer for Expendables 2 only shows Terry Crews in one brief moment firing another big gun. They had to fit an ever growing cast in a two minute spot, but Crews assured us he as more to do in the sequel than the original. Crews participated in NBC’s military competition “Stars Earn Stripes” and we got to ask him about Expendables 2 at the Television Critics Association panel.
“I think the coolest part about the new one is that we have a better rapport,” Crews said. “You get to see a little more of what we are like together, even in the downtime. Whereas the first one was just action, action, action, I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised when they get a little more of our characters, because we didn’t have time for backstory in the first one. This one, you get to learn a little bit more about Dolph, Randy, myself and how we interact with Sly and Jason.”
Crews had some backstory for his character, Hale Caesar, in The Expendables, but he says the sequel script introduced brand new ideas. And let him be funny.
“It was new for me too. They wanted to take it, I thought in a better direction. It kind of opened things up for me in a lot of ways, took advantage of my comedic timing. I don’t look at myself as a badass. I’ve never done that. With comedies I’ve done, all the things, I can’t do that. But Sly knew how to work with all our gifts and I get a nice hefty load of some of the comedic stuff.”
The Expendables was almost a dream team of action stars, but was missing a few and only had the big guns, Schwarzenegger and Willis, in a cameo. Having worked with Stallone on the first one, Crews says the sequel came closer to realizing Stallone’s original vision.
“It’s the movie that Sly really wanted to make in the beginning. Before, he was kind of counted out. He pretty much pulled this whole thing together and got the grassroots of this thing together in the first one, but now after it became a hit, became what it was worldwide, he pretty much had everything he wanted. We pretty much got everything we wanted. It was crazy. With the addition now of Jean-Claude [Van Damme] and Chuck Norris, it can only get better.”
The Expendables 2 opens August 17.
