‘John Rambo’: David Harbour to Play Major Sam Trautman in Prequel Movie!!

We’ve known for some time now that Noah Centineo is playing the iconic John Rambo in a prequel to the long-running Sylvester Stallone action franchise, but one of the key figures in Rambo’s life has remained unmentioned until now. We now know that a Stranger Things star will be starring as the man who “made Rambo,” as he claimed in First Blood. John Rambo has now wrapped production, and has not yet set a release date.

According to reports, David Harbour will be playing Major Sam Trautman, the Green Beret officer who shaped Rambo into a one-man army; Richard Crenna played the character in the first three films of the franchise. The film takes place during the Vietnam War, when Rambo was a raw recruit, and will depict the events that shaped him into a haunted loner after the war’s end. In addition to Harbour and Centineo, it also stars Yao (Sinners), Jason Tobin (Warrior), Quincy Isaiah (Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty), Jefferson White (Yellowstone), and Tayme Thapthimthong (The White Lotus).

Who Is Sam Trautman?

Trautman’s commanding officer during the Vietnam War, Trautman first appears in First Blood; after Rambo battles his way through a crooked small-town police department and flees into the surrounding woods, the Army sends in Trautman, now a colonel, to advise the local authorities in dealing with him. However, they fail to heed his advice, and Rambo does a great deal more damage before finally surrendering to Trautman. The role, which became Crenna‘s most iconic performance, almost went to someone else: Kirk Douglas was initially cast, but he demanded the script be rewritten, forcing the producers to cast Crenna at short notice. Trautman also appears in Rambo: First Blood Part II, recruiting the now-imprisoned Rambo to help him find missing POWs in Vietnam, and in Rambo III, in which Rambo must rescue him from Soviet invaders in Afghanistan. Crenna died in 2003, and the character was retired in subsequent Rambo sequels.

John Rambo is directed by Jalmari Helander, the Finnish helmer of Sisu and its sequel, Sisu: Road to Revenge. Its script is penned by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani (The Mauritanian), adapting characters created by David Morell in his 1972 novel First Blood. Executive producers on the film include Joe and Anthony Russo, and Sylvester Stallone himself. It is a production of Lionsgate and Millennium Media.