John Rambo is about to embark on his first mission. The prequel to the Rambo series, depicting the title character’s baptism of fire in the jungles of Vietnam, has commenced production in Bangkok, Thailand. The Recruit‘s Noah Centineo will fill Sylvester Stallone‘s shoes as Rambo in the new film. The film will be helmed by Finnish director Jalmari Helander, who proved his action bonafides with Sisu and its sequel, Sisu: Road to Revenge. Says Helander, “When I was eleven, I saw First Blood for the first time, and it changed my life. Rambo wasn’t just a film to me—it stayed with me growing up and was a defining influence on why I wanted to become a filmmaker. As we begin production on the origin of John Rambo, we’re going back to the beginning. This is Rambo stripped down, raw, and real—a survival story about endurance, persistence, and lost innocence. It’s an honor to shape this next chapter with deep respect for the character and the legacy, and to bring audiences the start of John Rambo’s journey.”
Avengers: Doomsday directors Joe and Anthony Russo will executive produce, while the script is by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani (The Mauritanian). The production has also added five new cast members: Yao (Sinners), Jason Tobin (A Thousand Blows), Quincy Isaiah (Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty), Jefferson White (Yellowstone), and Tayme Thapthimthong (The White Lotus). There’s no word on what roles they’ll be playing, or who will portray Colonel Sam Trautman, a key figure from Rambo’s past as depicted in the franchise’s earlier films.
What Is the ‘Rambo’ Franchise About?
The series began as a 1982 adaptation of David Morrell‘s novel First Blood. Directed by Ted Kotcheff (Wake in Fright), the film starred Stallone as John Rambo, a disaffected Green Beret turned drifter. Arriving in the small town of Hope, Washington, Rambo was accosted, arrested, and tortured by Sheriff Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy); eventually, Rambo escaped and tore through Teasle and his men, necessitating his old commanding officer, Colonel Trautman (Richard Crenna), to arrive on the scene to talk him down. It didn’t seem like the kick-off for an action franchise, but the movie was a surprise hit. The character returned in 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part II, teaming with Trautman to rescue POWs from post-war Vietnam, and 1988’s Rambo III, where he aided the Mujahideen of Afghanistan against Soviet invaders. In the character’s heyday, he also headlined an animated action cartoon, Rambo: The Force of Freedom. After a lengthy absence, Stallone returned to the character in 2008’s Rambo, in which he saved a group of missionaries from the Burmese military; and again, after another decade-long hiatus, in 2019’s Rambo: Last Blood, which pitted him against a Mexican drug cartel.
Centineo isn’t the only actor walking in Stallone‘s footsteps at the moment. I Play Rocky, a chronicle of a then-unknown Stallone‘s attempt to sell studios on Rocky, and himself as the movie’s lead, is also in the works, with Anthony Ippolito in the lead role.
John Rambo is now in production; no release date has yet been announced.
via Collider