Arnold Schwarzenegger tells EW that he will not appear in The Expendables 4 without Sylvester Stallone, who has reportedly departed from the action sequel. “There is no Expendables without Sly,” says the Terminator star. “I would never do the movie without him, no.”

Last Friday, Stallone’s rep confirmed to EW that the actor had withdrawn from the fourth installment of the action franchise because he and Nu Image/Millennium chief Avi Lerner could not find common ground on a new director, on the script, and on certain qualitative elements of the film. In addition to playing mercenary leader Barney Ross in the Expendables series, Stallone also cowrote the first three films and directed 2010’s franchise-inaugurating The Expendables.

Schwarzenegger himself played the character of Trench in the first three Expendables films but explains that he knows few details about the proposed fourth movie in the franchise. “I have not seen the script; I don’t even know if there is a script, even though they want to shoot in August again, like they usually do,” says the actor.

Even if Stallone returns to the project, Schwarzenegger insists that he will not appear in a fourth film unless he felt that his character was properly developed, something which he believes did not happen on 2014’s The Expendables 3.

“You know, I think the first and second one were terrific,” he said. “But, the third one, I thought my part was not written well. It was also not playing well in the movie, as far as I was concerned. Maybe other people believed differently. But I didn’t believe that I had any value in the movie. I love the franchise, by the way. I think it’s a spectacular franchise, The Expendables. I think that Sly has good ideas, what he wants to do with it, and I think if they write a really good script [in] which my part is very well-developed, I would do it. If not, then I won’t do it.”