After a long wait, Sylvester Stallone’s Samaritan movie is finally right around the corner. Originally expected to hit theaters two years ago, the upcoming superhero movie has been held back by numerous delays. But now, the plan is for the film to be released exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
Though a superhero story is a bit different from what’s normally expected from the action icon who played Rambo and Rocky, it’s not his first foray into the genre. In 1995, the actor brought Judge Dredd to life on the big screen, but the movie failed at the box office and was critically panned. The superhero movies he’s been involved with in recent years, though, have been huge hits. Stallone played the leader of the Ravagers in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and voiced King Shark in 2021’s The Suicide Squad, which was also directed by Gunn. His role in The Suicide Squad in particular received significant praise.
What’s different about Stallone’s Samaritan is that it will see the actor play the lead superhero. Headlining a movie in the genre is something that the 76-year-old action star hasn’t done since Judge Dredd. Here’s everything that’s currently known about Amazon and Stallone’s Samaritan movie.
Samaritan Cast
Directed by Julius Avery, Samaritan will see Stallone play the titular hero, who retired decades ago and is now laying low as a sanitation worker named Joe Smith. In addition to Stallone, Samaritan stars Javon Walton, Martin Starr (the MCU’s three Spider-Man movies), Moisés Arias (Hanna Montana), and Dascha Polanco (Orange is the New Black). Walton, who played Ashtray in HBO’s Euphoria show, is playing Sam Cleary, a child who ends up befriending the main protagonist. Samaritan will also feature appearances from Jared Odrick, Deacon Randle, and Natacha Karam.
Samaritan Story Details
The film is expected to take place 20 years after Samaritan, a widely respected hero with superhuman strength, mysteriously disappeared. In the present day, he’s completely given up on his superhero life and now lives in a world where no one has any clue about his secret past. That changes when he meets Sam, who figures out who he really is and tries to get him back to being the world-famous Samaritan again. How that will play out and what he’ll be up against if and when he resumes his old crime-fighting role remains to be seen.
Samaritan Release Date
Samaritan is due to hit Amazon Prime Video on August 26, 2022. As noted above, Sylvester Stallone’s movie was supposed to have been a theatrical release but production delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into those plans. As a result, its November 2020 release date was pushed back twice before MGM was purchased by Amazon, thus opening the door for Sylvester Stallone’s Samaritan movie to be released as an Amazon original.