Rambo can only continue as a streaming prequel, says Sylvester Stallone. The iconic Stallone character John Rambo debuted back in 1982 in the film First Blood, about a Vietnam vet returning to America only to find himself back in action after running afoul of law enforcement in a backward small town.
John Rambo's first taste of blood onscreen indeed drew enough of an audience to lead to a sequel, 1985's Rambo: First Blood Part II, which boasted James Cameron as a co-writer and sent Rambo back to the jungles to save forgotten POWs. Rambo III followed in 1988, as Rambo plunged head long into the Cold War by journeying to Afghanistan to save Colonel Trautman from the Soviets. Stallone's battle-hardened character then took a long hiatus until 2008's Rambo, which saw him back in the jungle helping missionaries. Rambo returned again in 2019 for Rambo: Last Blood, which saw the character back in America looking for peace and quiet and unsurprisingly finding the exact opposite.
John Rambo's last bloody action outing managed to gross $91 million at the worldwide box office, probably not enough of a return to inspire another sequel. However, Stallone has ideas about how Rambo could still live on anyway, though they don't involve more movies. Responding to a fan question on Instagram about a possible Rambo return (via MovieWeb), the actor said "Only as a streaming prequel or not at all."
Indeed this isn't the first time Stallone has floated the possibility of Rambo getting the prequel treatment. Previously, he talked about wanting to explore Rambo's formative years as a soldier in Vietnam in order to show how the character was transformed from an All-American young man into the unrelenting killing machine he later became. "He was like Jim Thorpe, and the war is what changed him," Stallone explained when discussing his prequel idea.
By the sounds of it Stallone has entirely given up on the idea that his Rambo prequel concept will ever make it to the big screen, which probably isn't surprising given the relatively low box office return for Last Blood. It remains to be seen if there's a streaming service out there that wants to make Stallone's idea happen, but given the enduring power of the Rambo brand, not to mention Stallone's iconic status in the eyes of multiple generations of moviegoers, it doesn't seem like such a long-shot that someone would be willing to put up the money.
Whether the project would warrant a series treatment or a one-off movie is another question as well, but Stallone's idea of showing Rambo's evolution from an innocent young man to a trained killer sounds like something that could support multiple episodes of a show (even if it's a foregone conclusion how things would turn out). It sounds like Stallone is at least trying to lay the groundwork for something to happen, as he tries to keep his most iconic action character alive one way or another.
Source: Sylvester Stallone/Instagram (via MovieWeb)