Rambo: Last Blood is touching down into theaters, and Sylvester Stallone is teasing that this may not be John Rambo’s last fight. Though trailers for Last Blood promise this will be Rambo’s final one-man killing spree (this time, he’s taking on Mexican cartels), Stallone, the man behind the minigun, recently spoke with Screen Rant about his idea for a prequel Rambo film that would feature a younger version of the character.
“I always thought of Rambo when he was 16 or 17—I hope they can do the prequel—he was the best person you could find,” Stallone said. “He was the captain of the team; he was the most popular kid in school; super athlete. He was like Jim Thorpe, and the war is what changed him. If you saw him before, he was like the perfect guy.”
The potential film would explore Rambo’s military career before First Blood. The original film starts post-Vietnam, after Rambo had already become an unstoppable Special Forces killing machine. Stallone went on to star in three increasingly bonkers Rambo sequels, battling everyone from Russian troops to Burmese pirates, and he reprises the role for Last Blood.
But Stallone’s 73 years old, and Rambo’s running out of people to kill. It’s clear from Stallone’s plans that the franchise would have to be handed over to a younger actor if it continued at all. Stallone has already handed over the Rocky reinsMichael B. Jordan in Creed. Perhaps this is his next major franchise to be inherited by a rising star. It wouldn’t be the first time such plans were announced—a Rambo reboot nearly entered production in 2016 with a new actor in the role.
But for now, Old Rambo is making his last stand. You can catch Stallone’s gun-toting Vietnam vet in Rambo: Last Blood, in theaters Sept. 20.
