Fresh off reprising the role that helped put him on the map in Ryan Coogler’s really rather great Rocky spinoff Creed, Sylvester Stallone is primed to reprise another character from his decorated catalog: John Rambo.
After flirting with development for years, Fox has formally nailed down plans to welcome back Stallone as the gun-toting renegade for a new TV series called Rambo: New Blood. Pitched as a father-son actioner, the network’s new project will be written by Die Hard and The Fugitive scribe Jeb Stuart, and though Deadline notes that Stallone’s place is yet to be officially confirmed, it’s expected that the action veteran will board the series to star and executive produce. After all, he’s starred in all four Rambo movies to date, so why stop now?
Entertainment One and Avi Lerner’s Millennium Films will lend financial support for Rambo: New Blood, which is set to bring together Stallone’s musclebound solider with his son J.R., described as a talented and astute ex-Navy SEAL. No word yet on casting for the role, though it appears it’s still early days on Fox’s live-action series.
Since its inception in 1982, John Rambo has developed into a permanent fixture of the action genre, and despite varying success at the box office, Stallone’s gleefully over-the-top soldier is ready to make the jump to television. That’s after the mooted reboot of Rambo in 2008, which witnessed the actor reprise his role as the titular lead, though the final result was a far cry from the franchise’s heyday with First Blood in the mid-80s.
Can Rambo: New Blood find success in a new medium? Time will tell. Stallone’s troubled Vietnam war veteran was originally meant to act as a side character in Fox’s soft reboot, though Deadline’s report claims that the star will be placed front and center with this new interpretation.