Many readers may have a favourite in the long standing
Rambo franchise. The more thought provoking
First Blood? The over-the-top
First Blood Part II? The terrible
Part III? Or the re-quel,
Rambo? Whichever your favourite is, you may or may not have been excited by news of a fifth film and a TV show coming to Fox.
Well today some of that came to a halt as Sylvester Stallone announced he's retiring from the
Rambo franchise.
Speaking on his reasons for doing so, Stallone said:
“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.”
“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’?”
This makes sense too as the
Rocky spinoff,
Creed, was one of the biggest films of the year and that had Stallone in a supporting role. So his comments put an end to rumors of a 5th
Rambo film. What of the TV series focusing on Rambo's son? Stallone said:
“I don’t want to cast aspersions, 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.”
Obviously the TV show will continue on without the Stallone's involvement. With
Creed doing as well as it has, it seems that Stallone's characters don't always need to be central to the plot; nor does Stallone have to be involved for the franchise to continue.
Stallone won't be resting easy though as there's rumors suggesting a sequel to
Creed is in development. As well as there being an
Expendables TV series, and a fourth
Expendables film on the way.