Sylvester Stallone has revealed why his ambitious Rambo prequel project never made it to screens — and it all came down to timing and technology. In a new interview with ScreenRant, while promoting Tulsa King Season 3, Stallone opened up about his vision for a project that would have used artificial intelligence to recreate a younger John Rambo. The character, one of Stallone’s most iconic, first appeared in 1982’s First Blood and has since been the focus of four sequels, the most recent being 2019’s Rambo: Last Blood. Here’s how Stallone described the idea he was chasing:

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

Stallone had envisioned a dramatic reworking of Rambo’s backstory, starting with a young man whose idyllic life is shattered by the nightmare of Vietnam. But as the actor admitted, the project stalled long enough for another version of a Rambo prequel to take its place.

What’s Next for ‘Rambo’?

The franchise is moving forward without Stallone for the first time in its history. John Rambo, a new prequel currently in development, will star Noah Centineo (The Recruit) as a younger version of the character. The film, directed by Jalmari Helander (Sisu), will follow Rambo’s service with the Green Berets in Vietnam and act as a lead-in to First Blood. Stallone, who not only starred in but also co-wrote or directed most of the franchise’s previous entries, is not involved in the upcoming film. Still, he had nothing but goodwill for the team carrying the torch: “I hope, you know, good luck.”

via Collider