The first draft of The Expendables included a gay mercenary named Richard, who was dropped in favor of another character. The Expendables didn't start out intending to gather together iconic action stars, with Stallone planning it to be a dark, Dirty Dozen-style action thriller. As more and more action icons ed, like Dolph Lundgren and Bruce Willis, it morphed into something of greatest hits of the genre itself. That means the script was constantly in flux too, with major subplots and actors being cut during development.
Forest Whitaker's ing role as a CIA agent was dropped at the last minute, as was a part for Brittany Murphy as the girlfriend of Mickey Rourke's Tool. The latter role was also added to later drafts when Rourke - who was on the cusp of a comeback thanks to The Wrestler at the time - agreed to make an appearance. On author Peter Clines' blog, Stallone states he wrote around a hundred and forty drafts of The Expendables, as adding or removing characters created huge ripple effects to the structure. One of the major cuts was a mercenary named Richard.
Why Richard Was Cut From The Expendables
In The Expendables' first official draft (dated 12/4/08), Richard ed the titular team after Lundgren's Gunnar was fired. Richard is described as "... tall, very well built, and mysterious, a Latin James Dean reincarnate," and for initially unknown reasons, Stallone's Barney specifically recruits him because he's gay. It's later revealed Barney took Richard along to a weapons deal with a gay supplier named Emanuel (a character earmarked for Book Of Boba Fett's Danny Trejo). Richard was being used as a handsome distraction, basically, but he ends up saving the lives of his team when the deal goes wrong. He also angrily confronts Barney about being recruited as a pawn.
Barney owns up to his mistake, apologizes and makes Richard an official part of the group. Being a macho action story, the other Expendables make cheap gags at Richard's expense, but the script still treats him with respect. In this draft he wasn't given much to do storywise beyond the weapon's deal scene, and in later scripts, he was replaced with Randy Couture's Toll Road. The Expendables made use of Couture's fighting skills, but Toll Road is arguably given even less to do than Richard and isn't nearly as interesting.
Are Trench and Yang Gay In Expendables 3?
While Richard was dropped from The Expendables 3, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Trench and Jet Li's Yin Yang are seen cozying up together in a bar; when Stallone's Barney says they should get a room, Trench retorts "We don't need one!" When asked about the scene in a 2014 chat with Grantland, director Patrick Hughes responded to a question asking if this meant the two were together with "I believe they are."
Many took the latter comment as confirmation Trench and Yang were gay, but the jokey nature of the scene itself makes it more ambiguous. Even Hughes' response might have been in jest, and since neither character is set to return for Expendables 4 - which breaks the action icon obsession - this is a story thread that likely won't be followed up on. That said, the scene practically encourages viewers to take their own reading away about the nature of Trench and Yang's relationship - and them being a couple is one of the few elements of the third Expendables that's pretty cool.
