Sylvester Stallone Nearly Unleashed a Rambo AI Prequel Before Pulling the Plug
Sylvester Stallone reveals he once pitched an AI de-aged Rambo origin story—then shelved it. Now a separate prequel, John Rambo, is moving ahead with The Recruit star Noah Centineo stepping into the bandana.
So here is a twist I did not have on my 2025 bingo card: Sylvester Stallone tried to get a Rambo prequel off the ground where he would play teen Rambo, de-aged with AI. He pitched it. He mapped out the story. Then he shelved it. And now a different prequel, titled 'John Rambo' with The Recruit star Noah Centineo in the headband, is moving ahead without him.
Stallone's scrapped AI plan
In a couple recent interviews, Stallone laid out his version of the prequel. He wanted to rewind to John Rambo before Vietnam and rebuild the character from scratch. Picture him as the school golden boy: friendly, popular, top of the class, prom royalty—the whole thing. Basically the opposite of the broken drifter we meet in First Blood. A charming, life-of-the-party Rambo, then you watch that optimism get crushed by what happens overseas.
The plan was to follow him into Vietnam expecting a quick in-and-out mission, and then show the nightmare that followed—capture, torture, friends killed, the grind of life in Saigon—until that bright kid hardens into the haunted soldier. To pull it off, Stallone (79) wanted to use AI-assisted de-aging so he could play 18-year-old Rambo himself.
"Everyone thought I was crazy."
That was his pitch, framed as an AI experiment. He says the tech is already good enough to track a young Rambo through Saigon using his own face, just dialed back in age. Not everyone agreed.
Why it did not happen
Stallone says he and his team took too long to move, and another group stepped in with their own prequel. He has essentially waved them on and wished them luck.
The prequel that is actually happening
- Title: 'John Rambo'
- Star: Noah Centineo (The Recruit) as young Rambo
- Director: Jalmari Helander
- Writers: Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani
- Status: in development, no release date yet
If you are keeping score: Stallone wanted to be the first to really lean into AI to rewrite a character's early years; Hollywood blinked; and now a separate, traditional prequel is taking the baton with a new lead. Inside baseball, sure, but the idea of a cheerful, valedictorian Rambo turning into the guy we know? That is a wild pivot we may never see.