Sylvester Stallone reveals his AI ‘Rambo’ prequel idea was scrapped: “We procrastinated too long”

An AI Rambo prequel Sylvester Stallone had been working on was scrapped, the actor has revealed.

Stallone has played John Rambo in all five Rambo movies, from 1982’s First Blood to 2019’s Last Blood, and the character is set to return in a prequel – currently titled John Rambo – but with Noah Centineo in the role instead.

Stallone told ScreenRant that he had the idea of using AI to help recreate his younger character, but that the John Rambo team took over.

“I wanted to do the first AI… not retroactive… but I wanted to rewrite history of the earlier Rambo,” he said, “Because I wanted Rambo to be the nicest guy in the school, the valedictorian, the prom king, and all that stuff.”

He continued: “And when he goes to Vietnam, he thinks it’s going to be a three-week hit-and-run, and you see him being tortured and captured, his friends murdered, one thing after another, and [his] life in Saigon. And that’s how I became the way I became, but originally I was bon vivant – that kind of thing.

“And I thought, ‘We could do this with AI,’ but [we] procrastinated too long and they took it over and, I hope, you know, good luck.”

Previously, in June 2019, Stallone said he’d continue portraying Rambo, despite Last Blood director Adrian Grünberg saying that the movie “closes the circle” and would complete the series (via GamesRadar).

That September, Stallone expressed interest in another Rambo movie, in which he’d return to the Native American reservation where he grew up and take refuge there, while he said in 2024 that he’d like Ryan Gosling to be the next Rambo.

As for the upcoming prequel, it was first announced in May this year that Millennium Media were producing the film, with Jalmari Helander directing. The Recruit star Centineo was cast in August. It’s set to focus on Rambo’s time with the Green Berets in Vietnam, and filming is reportedly projected to begin early next year in Thailand.

Helander said of the movie, via Deadline: “I have been the biggest fan of Rambo since the age of 11. It is so surreal to be in a situation where I can actually make my own Rambo movie. The chain of events that got me here makes, in a fantastic way, my whole childhood make sense. I can’t wait to bring the greatest action hero back to the big screen where he belongs.”