Rambo's Creator Imagined Someone Very Different Than Sylvester Stallone In The Part

Going into "First Blood," director Ted Kotcheff and star Sylvester Stallone surely weren't aware they were making one of the best action movies ever made and crafting an action icon in the process. But they might have had an inkling, considering they were working from David Morrell's 1972 novel of the same name. The book contained the very mix of Hollywood-style bombast and social critique that would define the very first Rambo movie as the innovative outlier it is within the larger canon. Inspired by two harrowing true stories about war veterans, Morrell wrote John Rambo as a killing machine haunted by his experiences in Vietnam. While he could dispatch enemies with preternatural ease, Rambo was also a believably tortured man, with Morrell using his prose to interrogate the very real psychological effects of serving in 'Nam.

That combination of action and analysis made its way into the original script for "First Blood" by William Sackheim and Michael Kozoll before Stallone got a hold of it and erased all the killing to preserve the everyman charm he'd managed to establish with "Rocky" in '76. Surprisingly enough, Rambo doesn't actually kill a single soul in "First Blood," relying instead on his survival skills and guile to stay ahead of Washington's State Troopers, local police, and the National Guard.

Thankfully, Sly's idea worked out. Audiences didn't need Rambo to kill anyone to fall in love with the guy, though it is worth noting that the character became the pre-eminent action hero of the '80s by laying waste to entire armies throughout multiple sequels. Had Morrell had his way, however, Rambo's evolution would surely have looked a lot different.

Leaving Rocky Balboa aside, Rambo remains Sylvester Stallone's most known action hero role. The character is inseparable from Sly himself, with the actor serving as a sort of custodian of John Rambo throughout his career in the same way he shepherded the Rocky franchise across multiple decades. But before Sly was cast, it seems author David Morrell had a much different idea of who the leading man should be. The author had written the character as slightly more disheveled than Sly's clean-cut hero and envisioned someone who could embody that unkempt aura for the movie adaptation.

Morrell revealed via Twitter/X that he originally wanted none other than country music and screen legend Kris Kristofferson to play John Rambo in "First Blood," writing:

"Saddened by the death of Kris Kristofferson, one of my favorite songwriters. He had a great movie career also. Back in 1972, when I sold the film rights to 'FIRST BLOOD,' I imagined him as Rambo, with his beard and long hair as he's described in my book."

The late actor, who passed away at the age of 88 in September 2024, was in the midst of defining the outlaw country sound in the early '70s, which seemingly made him the perfect fit for Morrell's rugged hero. When "First Blood" was released, Kristofferson had only appeared in one film — Dennis Hopper's 1971 drama "The Last Movie" — and was far from the established star we know him as today. The same year that Morrell's book debuted, he starred as the titular musician in Bill L. Norton's "Cisco Pike," which was about as far away from the one-man army that is John Rambo as you could get. Still, it seems Morrell saw something of Rambo in Kristofferson, whose name was bandied about for the lead role as the "First Blood" adaptation came together.

Interestingly enough, Kristofferson had played a Vietnam veteran action hero by the time the producers of "First Blood" were looking for their leading man, having starred in 1976's "Vigilante Force." It wasn't quite the potent mix of action and weighty themes that "First Blood" turned out to be, but alongside the few Westerns in which Kristofferson had appeared at the time, it more than proved his action bonafides nonetheless. The star later showcased his powerfully rugged energy in 1998's "Blade," in which he takes out his fair share of vampires and projects a flinty, badass aura in the process. For me, if anything demonstrates that he would have been a good fit for Morrell's tortured Vietnam vet, it's that movie — though it did come much later in his career.

Either way, it seems Sly was destined for the part of John Rambo, and it's a good thing, too. The actor came onto the project and immediately removed much of his character's dialogue, thereby allowing the film to rely on that action movie standard of having other characters talk up the hero's formidable skills. It's only thanks to Sly, for example, that "First Blood" doesn't feature a scene where John Rambo kills an owl and says, "Take that you mouse-munching motherf*****." It was lines like that which had Stallone convinced "First Blood" would ruin his career.

Of course, the opposite happened, and "First Blood" became the actor's most-known franchise alongside the "Rocky" movies. But had Kristofferson been cast, perhaps that cheesy, pre-Stallone script would have been left intact and the actor's screen career would have been over before it could really get going. Thankfully, as it stands, Kristofferson as Rambo remains one of those fascinating Hollywood what-ifs.