Sylvester Stallone Is Done Playing Rambo

On the heels of news of a Rambo TV series being developed at Fox, the titular hero of a now 34 year old franchise says he is unloading the guns for good. 

Sylvester Stallone, who has played Rambo 4 times, says, “The heart’s willing, but the body says, ‘Stay home!'" Stallone is now 69 years old and in his most recent film, Creed, played Rocky Balboa for the seventh time.

“It’s like fighters that go back for one last round and get clobbered. Leave it to someone else," Stallone added. “As an action film, I was very satisfied that [Rambo IV] 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.”

Finally, the actor concluded, “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’?”

Stallone is not involved with the Rambo TV series but he does have his concerns with the character's legacy. “I don’t want to cast aspersions,” Stallone said, “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.”