Sylvester Stallone didn’t want Noah Centineo to star as new John Rambo

Sylvester Stallone didn’t want Noah Centineo to star as the new John Rambo.

The actor, 79, starred as traumatised Vietnam veteran John Rambo in the original movie that kicked off the action franchise, and Noah, 29, has now been announced as the actor who will take on the character in a reboot of the series.

But an interview with Sylvester has now emerged in which he said he wanted to pass the baton of the part to Ryan Gosling.

Last year, Sylvester revealed on The Tonight Show he had hoped Barbie star Ryan, 44, would inherit the role.

He said: “I met him at a dinner and obviously we’re opposites. He’s good-looking – I’m not. That’s how it works.

“But he goes, ‘I was fascinated by Rambo, and I used to go to school dressed as Rambo and people would chase me away and I still didn’t stop’.

“He just kept saying that he had a lot of affiliation with Rambo, and I thought, ‘This is interesting. If I ever pass the baton, I’ll pass it on to him because he loves the character’.”

Noah is known for his roles in To All the Boys I Loved Before, Black Adam, and The Recruit, and will portray a young John Rambo during the Vietnam War, with production slated on the latest Rambo movie for early 2026 in Thailand.

Jalmari Helander will direct from a screenplay by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani, and Lionsgate is said to be the frontrunner to distribute the film.

The Rambo franchise began in 1982 with First Blood, which became a commercial hit despite ambivalent critical reception.

Sylvester’s Vietnam war veteran returned in four sequels: Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Rambo III (1988), Rambo (2008) and Rambo: Last Blood (2019).

The most recent instalment was widely criticised, including by the series’ creator, David Morrell, who wrote First Blood in 1972.

David tweeted on the premiere day of Last Blood: “I agree with these RAMBO: LAST BLOOD reviews. The film is a mess. Embarrassed to have my name associated with it.”

The film followed Rambo as he travelled to Mexico to rescue his friend’s granddaughter from cartel traffickers.