The Rambo franchise is officially getting a prequel.
The Recruit star Noah Centineo is reportedly attached to lead the new Millennium Media picture, titled John Rambo, according to Deadline. Jalmari Helander is set to direct the feature, penned by writers Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvan.
According to the outlet, Centineo will star as a young John Rambo fighting in the Vietnam War. Plot details are still being kept under wraps.
He will be taking over the mantle from Sylvester Stallone, who has famously held the role for five films since the 1982 original, adapted from David Morell’s book First Blood. Stallone is not involved in the project but he has reportedly been notified about Centineo’s casting.
Helander, who previously directed the Rambo-inspired Finnish action film Sisu, said, “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.”
Stallone previously shared who he would like to pass the role along to after reprising it one last time in 2019 for Rambo: Last Blood – Ryan Gosling. But the actor joked that he wasn’t sure if people would think Gosling was “too good-looking to be Rambo.”
“[Ryan] goes, ‘I was fascinated by Rambo and I used to go to school dressed as Rambo and people would chase me away and I still didn’t stop. I’d vacation as Rambo.’ He just kept saying that he had a lot of affiliation with Rambo,” Stallone said during a 2024 appearance on The Tonight Show, per Variety. “And I thought, you know, this is interesting. If I ever pass the baton, I’ll pass it on to him because he loves the character.”
John Rambo marks the latest action film Centineo has been attached to after recently signing on to star in the new live-action adaptation of the Street Fighter video game alongside Jason Momoa and Andrew Koji. He also recently starred in Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s ensemble war drama Warfare, Netflix’s since-canceled spy thriller series, The Recruit, and the romcom trilogy To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Centineo also starred in Marvel’s Black Adam, which was also co-written by John Rambo writers Noshirvan and Haines.
The outlet reports the prequel project aims to begin filming in Thailand in 2026.
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