The "Greatest Action Film Ever Made" Almost Got an AI Prequel Thanks to Sylvester Stallone Actorsvaultpro

While many critics and fans over the years have dubbed First Blood the “greatest action film ever made,” its legacy was almost tarnished thanks to the movie’s star, Sylvester Stallone. Of course, some might say the shine wore off years ago due to several, unnecessary sequels, but Stallone wanted to take things one step further by delivering a prequel to First Blood that would have used AI to give us a younger version of his beloved character, John Rambo.

Speaking with ScreenRant recently about the new season of Tulsa King that’s set to hit Paramount+ on September 21, 2025, the subject of First Blood came up. The classic 80s action movie has been in the news these days thanks to Noah Centineo recently being cast to play a younger iteration of the character made famous by Stallone in an upcoming prequel simply titled John Rambo. However, if the iconic star had his way, it wouldn’t really matter who was playing the part to a certain degree, because he would have used AI to make them appear as himself:

“I wanted to do the first AI… not retroactive… but I wanted to rewrite history of the earlier Rambo because I wanted Rambo to be the nicest guy in the school, the valedictorian, the prom king, and all that stuff. And when he goes to Vietnam, he thinks it’s going to be a three-week hit-and-run, and you see him being tortured and captured, his friends murdered, one thing after another, and [his] life in Saigon.

“And that’s how I became the way I became, but originally I was bon vivant – that kind of thing. And I thought, ‘We could do this with AI,’ but [we] procrastinated too long and they took it over and, I hope, you know, good luck.”

Why Isn’t Sylvester Stallone Involved in the New ‘Rambo’ Prequel?

Sylvester Stallone in First Blood

Orion Pictures

Look, we love First Blood and John Rambo just as much as anyone else. The 1982 movie is a bona fide classic that stands the test of time. That being said, using AI to recreate his glory days would have been a massive misstep by Stallone. With all the discourse surrounding the technology these days in Hollywood, the film would have almost certainly bombed at the box office.

With this new prequel now moving forward, Stallone has no involvement in the project despite being the face of the franchise for the past 43 years. It’s the passing of the torch, so to speak. The rights to the film series are owned by Millennium Media, who produced the latest two entries in the saga, Rambo (2008) and Rambo: Last Blood (2019). Their vision for what a prequel could be differed from Stallone’s, and as such, they’ve brought Sisu director Jalmari Helander on board to helm the new movie, which is penned by Black Adam writers Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani.

As we await more news on what the future holds for John Rambo, including additional casting, you can catch the 1982 original currently streaming now for free on Pluto TV.