The casting for the upcoming Rambo movie, led by Noah Centineo, has grown with a familiar name—one that some fans might have been hesitant to see back in action.
The Rambo saga is returning once more, but this time without Sylvester Stallone at the helm. The actor who has lent Rambo his face and his muscles from the 1982 original through the latest chapter, the ill-fated Last Blood of 2019, will soon be replaced by Noah Centineo. This gives Centineo a lifeline after the DCEU collapse (in which he played Atom Smasher) and after Netflix canceled the espionage series The Recruit, in which he starred. For the comeback, John Rambo will take a trip back in time to Vietnam, the infamous war that wasn’t his own.
This prequel is being directed by Finnish filmmaker Jalmari Helander, the helmer of the blistering Sisu and its follow-up. The film’s cast also welcomed David Harbour, who reprises the role of Colonel Trautman, a part originally portrayed by Richard Crenna. More recently, another well-known actor was announced to join the lineup, and it wasn’t entirely expected.
VERY FIRST BLOOD
According to Variety, James Franco is on the cast of the new John Rambo. The actor needs little introduction, though it’s worth noting that in 2018 he faced sexual harassment allegations from several women, including former students of his now-closed school. He initially denied the accusations, then later admitted to having had sexual relations with students, “consensual” as he claimed. Since then, he has appeared in a handful of more modest projects, particularly in Europe, such as Largo Winch 3, the infamous flop kicked off by the subtitle The Price of Money (the joke practically writes itself).
Hollywood, it seems, has once again decided to turn the page and offer him a major project—the first since The Ballad of Buster Scruggs from the Coen brothers, released in 2018. If true, it’s expected to be a relatively small role, with details not fully specified by the press.
Back to John Rambo, which will likely get a different French title given that the original title mirrors the 2008 installment’s title in France, the script is co-written by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani, the duo behind The Guilty and Black Adam. The rest of the cast includes Yao (Sinners), Jason Tobin (Warrior), Quincy Isaiah (Winning Time), Jefferson White (Yellowstone) and Tayme Thapthimthong (The White Lotus season 3). Sylvester Stallone, meanwhile, will stay behind the camera as an executive producer.
At this stage, no release date has been announced, but with the wrap on production, a 2027 arrival at the earliest seems plausible.
