Sylvester Stallone Done With ‘Rambo’: ‘Leave It To Someone Else’

We just recently saw Sylvester Stallone reprise his role as Rocky Balboa for the surprise hit, Creed, and the result was tremendous. Not only did Stallone deliver a remarkable performance after having not played the role in almost 10 years, but he is now in talks to possibly land his first Oscar nomination in almost four decades. But what about his other iconic character, John Rambo? Well, if you were hoping to see Stallone return as the action hero anytime soon, be prepared to be crushed.

During an interview with Variety, Sylvester Stallone said that he is done playing the role of John Rambo, which he did starting with the 1982 film First Blood. Stallone then did two other sequels in the 1980s, Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III, and then later reprised his role for a third sequel in 2008 simply titled Rambo.

Sylvester Stallone noted that there’s a part of him that wants to move forward with the proposed fifth Rambo entry, titled Last Blood, which was scheduled to be the franchise’s finale. But the 69-year-old Stallone notes that he physically no longer has it in him to move forward with it or any other Rambo movie.

“The heart’s willing, but the body says, ‘Stay home!,’ It’s like fighters that go back for one last round and get clobbered. Leave it to someone else.”

As The Inquisitr previously reported, Sylvester Stallone announced that he was going to do the fifth Rambo movie prior to portraying notorious mobster Gregory Scarpa in the biopic, Scarpa, which is being directed by Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) and written by Nicholas Pileggi (Goodfellas). Stallone would have reportedly written and directed Last Blood, in addition to reprising his role as John Rambo, which is the same thing he did for the 2008 film.

Doing Scarpa based on Gangster Greg Scarpa after LAST BLOOD RAMBO…

— Sylvester Stallone (@TheSlyStallone) December 28, 2014

Even though there had been discussion of making Last Blood the final film in the Rambo franchise, Stallone said he’s actually satisfied with the way the story ended in 2008’s Rambo, and he doesn’t see the need to continue dragging the character through another entry.

“There’s nothing left. When they asked me to do another Rambo, I said, ‘If I can’t do better than I did last time, and I can’t, then why’?”

Back in December of 2015, Deadline announced that a new Rambo TV series was in the works from Fox, and it would focus on the character’s son, J.R., who is an ex-Navy SEAL. The report initially said that Sylvester Stallone was going to be involved with the series. However, during the interview with Variety, Stallone clarified that he has no involvement with it.

“I don’t want to cast aspersions, but it’s delicate to try to replace a character with his son. I’ve seen the son of Flicka, the son of Tarzan, the son of King Kong, [and] the son of Godzilla. It’s a very difficult premise.”

The new Rambo television series is not the first time the action hero has been seen on the small screen. Back in 1986, just one year after the release of First Blood Part II, an animated syndicated television series called Rambo: The Force of Freedom made its debut.

What initially started as a five-part miniseries, according to TV, was then renewed into a daily show. It made its debut in September of that year and also launched a line of Rambo action figures. The voice talent included James Avery, Peter Cullen, Alan Oppenheimer, and Neil Ross, who voiced John Rambo. But after three months and 65 episodes, the show was cancelled.

With the announcement that Sylvester Stallone is moving on from the Rambo franchise, what do you think will happen next? Do you think someone else will take on the iconic role in a rebooted series?

[Image credit: Lionsgate via the Guardian]