"AI is sophisticated": Sylvester Stallone shares ideas he had about playing a young John Rambo back in the day

Rambo has always been Sylvester Stallone's most unforgettable role, and even after forty years, he still had fresh ideas about how to bring the character back in a surprising way.

Speaking on The Playlist's Bingeworthy podcast, Stallone revealed he once pitched a prequel idea where he would play a teenage John through the use of AI technology. He explained;

"Al is sophisticated enough to go through Saigon to see him at 18 years old..."

And yes, he really wanted to do it himself.

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Stallone’s vision of stepping back into Rambo’s past

When fans think of Rambo, they picture Stallone as a peak action hero, carrying both the weight of war and his iconic bowie knife. But Stallone imagined something different: Going back to the earliest days of the character.

He told Bingeworthy that he pitched studios on the idea of 'de-aging' himself for a prequel, where he would play John as a young soldier in Vietnam. Stallone said;

"Al is sophisticated enough to go through Saigon to see him at 18 years old and basically use the same image. So it isn't as big a stretch."

Of course, not everyone agreed. He admitted that most people in the room thought he had lost it.

"Everyone thought I was crazy..."

Stallone recalled how Hollywood execs reacted to the pitch. But to Stallone, the logic was simple; audiences had already seen the concept of de-aging in films like Captain Marvel, so why not him?

If others could turn back the clock, why not Stallone? He wanted to show how a small-town football captain could transform into the hardened figure who first appeared in First Blood.

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Why the prequel remains a tough challenge

While Stallone's idea might not have been greenlit, a prequel has still been in development, this time with a younger actor like Noah Centineo.

But Stallone is cautious about what it means to step into those boots. Speaking to Bingeworthy, he reminded the audience of his own experience of taking on a role in the 2000 remake of Get Carter. He explained;

"It's very, very hard. He may do a stellar job, but you're overcoming this because I went through it with Get Carter. Everyone loves the original, and then you're always fighting that prejudice..."

Stallone also spoke to The Hollywood Reporter back in 2022 about what kind of prequel he envisioned. His idea leaned toward a raw, documentary-like tone, showing young Rambo before war trauma reshaped him. He said;

"I wanted to do it like a Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam, where you drop young Rambo in there and he's this outgoing guy, football captain, and then you see why he becomes Rambo..."

Studios, however, leaned toward a more modern setup, focusing on passing the torch. That creative difference left Stallone's Al pitch as one of those fascinating "what if" moments in franchise history.

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More than four decades after First Blood, Stallone is still deeply attached to Rambo. His unusual pitch for a de-aged version shows just how far he was willing to go to explore the character's untold beginnings.

Even though his idea never left the table, it proves that for Stallone, the character is more than just an action figure, but he's a story worth retelling in new ways. Whether through Al or a new actor, the legend of John Rambo continues to evolve.

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