Sylvester Stallone Wants Ryan Gosling To Take Over His Beloved Character

“Can you imagine me as Ken? Doesn’t work at all,” Sylvester Stallone continued. “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, ‘You know, this is interesting. If I ever passed the baton, I’ll pass it on to him because he loves the character.'”

When asked if Ryan Gosling portraying John Rambo in a film was a realistic possibility, Sylvester Stallone said, “I would say yes, but I don’t know if anyone would say, ‘Hey, he’s too good-looking to be Rambo!'” Ryan Gosling’s admiration for Rambo is not just a passing phase. The actor openly expressed his love for the iconic character on The Tonight Show in 2011.The Barbie star said the first Rambo film, First Blood, had such a profound impact on him that he felt a genuine connection to the character. Ryan Gosling even recalled a childhood incident where he believed his face resembled Sylvester Stallone’s, leading him to put steak knives in his Fisher-Price Houdini kit and throw them at kids during recess.

While Ryan Gosling has received Sylvester Stallone’s blessing to play Rambo, there’s a touch of irony in his comment about not having the looks to play Ken in Barbie. Gosling previously explained that Stallone was the visual inspiration for the character. Stallone’s 1980s wardrobe specifically influenced Ken’s distinctive style.

The Rambo film series began with the release of First Blood in 1982. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, the story is based on David Morrell’s 1972 novel of the same name. Sylvester Stallone stars as John Rambo, a troubled Vietnam War veteran who becomes a target of law enforcement in a small town. The movie was a massive success, with Rambo becoming an iconic figure in the action genre.

Despite numerous script adaptations from Morrell’s book being presented to studios over the years. It was only Sylvester Stallone’s involvement that prompted its production. The post-Vietnam War era and the actor’s rising star power following the success of the Rocky films allowed him to reshape the script. He wanted to make John Rambo’s character more sympathetic.In Morrell’s book, Rambo kills many of his pursuers, and the draft by Kozoll and Sackheim had him responsible for the deaths of 16 people. However, in the Sylvester Stallone movie, Rambo does not directly cause the demise of any police or national guardsmen. The actor also decided that Rambo should survive the film, unlike the book, where the character takes his own life.Although a suicide scene was initially filmed, director Ted Kotcheff and Sylvester Stallone decided that Rambo should turn himself in instead. Stallone diligently revised the script approximately seven times, and Larry Gross and David Giler made additional changes at Kotcheff’s request.

The financial success of First Blood partly drove the decision to develop sequels. The film earned over $125 million worldwide, making it a box office hit. Rambo: First Blood Part II was released in 1985 and continued Sylvester Stallone’s character’s journey, this time focusing on a mission in Vietnam to rescue American prisoners of war.

Rambo III followed in 1988, with Rambo involved in a conflict in Afghanistan. However, it was not as well-received as its predecessors. The franchise went on hiatus for many years until Sylvester Stallone returned to the role with Rambo in 2008, with the final installment in the series, Rambo: Last Blood, released in 2019.