Production on a new Rambo movie has now finished in the jungles of Thailand, and fans of the long-running action franchise are waiting to see what the next chapter looks like after the series was made famous by Sylvester Stallone.
And while John Rambo remains the centre of attention, the forthcoming prequel is also set to feature a notable return to mainstream Hollywood from an actor who has been largely absent from big studio projects in recent years.
Spiderman and Pineapple Express actor James Franco is slated to appear in the film, marking a major studio comeback after roughly seven years away from that side of the industry, as the franchise aims to reach a new wave of action fans.
Franco reportedly isn’t taking on a leading role. According to Variety, he’ll play a minor villain, while Black Adam and Charlie’s Angels actor Noah Centino steps into the role of John Rambo, previously portrayed by Stallone.
The 48-year-old’s involvement has already sparked mixed reactions, largely due to allegations raised in 2018 and 2019 by several former acting students who accused him of sexual abuse and exploitation.
Some of those accounts characterised his classes as a ‘pipeline of young women’, alleging participants were pushed toward nude scenes and pressured into sexual situations. Franco later settled the related civil case in 2021 for a reported $2.2 million.
Later, in December of that year, he acknowledged sleeping with a younger student and said he had used his ‘fame like a lure’, describing that behaviour as wrong, while also maintaining he had always sought consent.
He said: “I suppose at the time, my thinking was: If it’s consensual, it’s OK.”
In the years since, Franco has kept a lower profile, with various actors — including long-time collaborator Seth Rogen — publicly creating distance from him. During that period, he has worked more sporadically, including appearances in French- and Italian-language productions.
This new entry, however, brings him back to a high-profile Hollywood project — one that aims to more fully explore John Rambo’s origins. Audiences first met the character in 1982’s First Blood as a Vietnam special forces veteran living with severe PTSD.
Director Jalmari Helander has yet to share specific story details about what the film will reveal regarding Rambo’s time in Vietnam, but Franco has suggested a rough timeframe for when viewers might expect the prequel to hit cinemas.
At the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival earlier this week — where he was seen alongside girlfriend Izabel Pakzad — Franco spoke about having recently completed work on a “big studio movie”.
Although he didn’t name John Rambo at the time (something later confirmed), he did indicate the movie’s likely release window, saying it ‘won’t be ready for this summer, but my guess is it will be end of this year or spring-summer 2027.’