Sylvester Stallone may have been willing to reprise his role as Rocky Balboa in Creed, but don’t expect to see him playing John Rambo again. The actor recently told Variety that he doesn’t plan to play the skilled yet reckless war veteran again.
Although there have been rumors about Stallone working on a fifth Rambo film, the actor indicated that he’d rather “leave [the role] to someone else.” As unfortunate as it is for fans, Stallone’s age seems to be holding him back. “The heart’s willing, but the body says, ‘Stay home!'” the 69-year-old action star said. We can’t blame him — running through jungles, stealing helicopters, and freeing POWs, even when it’s all fictional, can’t be easy.
Perhaps Stallone would be more inclined to continue as the series’ protagonist if he felt he had unfinished business, but the actor is happy with what he’s done and doesn’t think he’d be able to top it. “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?'” he said.
Even though Stallone is ready to move on from Rambo, Fox doesn’t think audiences are. The studio has a TV spin-off in the works that will focus on the former soldier’s son. Not only will Stallone not be involved (despite initial reports to the contrary), he seems pessimistic about the prospective project.
“I don’t want to cast aspersions,” he 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.”
Moving forward, Stallone has plans to appear in a sequel to Creed, and his voice will be heard in both Ratchet & Clank and Animal Crackers.
