Being cast as a different version of an iconic character – whether older or younger – always brings a challenge, especially from fans of that character. But what about when the original actor is very much aware of the movie? Well, that’s what’s going on with Sylvester Stallone and John Rambo, with Noah Centineo set to play the character in a prequel. So what is Stallone’s take on the new Rambo flick?
Stallone sat down with Entertainment Tonight, where he said it won’t be easy to approach John Rambo from the pre-Vietnam era but it’s possible that a good movie comes out of it. “I don’t know much about the young man, but it’s going to be quite a challenge…I think it could be fantastic, I really do, if they hit all the marks.”
Sylvester Stallone himself actually had an idea for how he could tweak 1982’s First Blood using AI to explore what John Rambo was up to before he joined the Army. Touching on some of these ideas, Stallone added, “I always thought of Rambo as very, highly popular. He was captain of the football team, he was getting straight A’s. I mean, he was just that kind of guy, valedictorian. And then the war broke him down and turned him into this havoc machine, suffering from PTSD. I wanted to see that evolution of, ‘I can’t wait to go to war. This is going to be fun. This’ll be over in three weeks.’” We’ll have to wait and see how Centineo does with the character but he couldn’t possibly be worse than going the artificial intelligence route…
As far as plot details for the upcoming Rambo prequel, they have been kept pretty mum, although there were plans to shoot – with zero involvement from Stallone – this fall. Stallone most recently played the character in Rambo: Last Blood back in 2019, with the actor even saying at the time that he would have been interested in continuing the portray him.
What do you think of the idea of another Rambo movie but without Sylvester Stallone? Does this sort of project have potential or is it your worst nightmare? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below.
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