Sylvester Stallone donned the headband of John Rambo five times over the course of 37 years as the franchise evolved from the surprisingly dark and complex action-orientated thrills of First Blood to the overblown shoot em’ up histrionics of the following two sequels, before going somewhat back to basics for the final installments, which were smaller in scale but just as gratuitously violent as their predecessors.
Last year’s fifth outing was called Last Blood for a reason, with the 74 year-old leading man and action icon seemingly retiring his other career-defining character for good. In fact, Stallone recently admitted that the only way the series could continue would be as a prequel developed exclusively for a streaming service, or the Vietnam veteran wouldn’t return at all.
Indeed, even prior to Last Blood‘s release, the Rocky legend had expressed an interest in following the younger and much more innocent title hero before he enlisted in the army, exploring Rambo’s early years as a popular and talented high school student in what hardly sounds like a revolutionary or even particularly interesting spin on the material.
And while it remains to be seen if such a project will ever materialize, insider Daniel Richtman now claims a reboot is in the works. Unfortunately, he offers no further details on what form it might take, but based on Stallone’s comments, it could certainly be heading down the prequel route.
Of course, the actor is so inextricably linked to the character that a lot of fans would have little interest in a continuation of the story that he’s not involved in, unless he was on board in some sort of creative capacity, but the idea of rebooting Rambo with someone else playing the role still feels both wholly unnecessary and completely redundant.