Sylvester Stallone reveals he is officially retiring from playing Rambo.
Despite saying it for several years and working on a rumored script for Rambo V, Sylvester Stallone revealed in a new interview that he has no intention of reprising his role as the military hero.
“The heart’s willing, but the body says, ‘Stay home!,’” Stallone, 69, explained in an interview with Variety. “It’s like fighters that go back for one last round and get clobbered. Leave it to someone else.”
Stallone pointed out that he was okay with where 2008’s Rambo IV left the character, which he first played in 1982.
“You know when you realize there’s nothing more to pull out?” Stallone says. “As an action film, I was very satisfied that it dealt with the Burmese situation. It had one foot in a current event, the longest civil war in history, 65 years at that time. It was so brutal, which civil war is, I was shocked they even gave me an R-rating. I didn’t want to compromise. I said, ‘This is probably going to be the last decent film of this genre that I’m going to do as a solo act.’ When that was accomplished, I never felt the same willingness to do it again.”
Stallone also said, “There’s nothing left. When they asked me to do another ‘Rambo,’ I said, ‘If I can’t do better than I did last time, and I can’t, then why’?”
It is important to point out that the Rambo TV is currently in development without Stallone. The new Rambo TV show will focus on the character’s son.
“I don’t want to cast aspersions,” Stallone said, “but it’s delicate to try to replace a character with his son. I’ve seen the son of Flicka, the son of Tarzan, the son of King Kong, the son of Godzilla. It’s a very difficult premise.”
Maybe, Melissa McBride can play Rambo in the next movie? She did one hell of a job in The Walking Dead!