Sylvester Stallone is not a comic-book movie virgin. Samaritan recently laid out the case that he could pick up this kind of heroic role, and he of course starred in Judge Dredd back in the 1990s. He portrayed Stakar Ogord in Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2, and no one can ever resist him as the voice of King Shark in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. He nearly ended up being Superman for Richard Donner, although Christopher Reeve obviously ended up snagging the role. And The Expendables franchise does also contain a comic book series, but that all gets very circular.
Really though, Stallone’s career has been forged upon iconic characters like John Rambo and Rocky Balboa in more grounded universes than the MCU or DCEU. He’s obviously fronted multiple franchises and continues to carry leading-man strength, as he’ll soon prove again in Paramount’s Tulsa King, which looks incredibly fun. To promote the show, he sat down with The Hollywood Reporter for a wide-ranging interview that included the Superman casting business. Stallone reasoned that he’s not really in line with comic-book leading-man vibes, although he wouldn’t have minded playing a character like Nick Fury. Via THR:
“I don’t look like any comic-book character. Like I could have never played The Terminator. No one would make a robot with a crooked mouth and voice that sounds like a pallbearer. It just doesn’t work. But yes. Who was the guy Sam Jackson ended up playing? … Yeah. I thought I could have done something like that, where I’m not the main guy.”
That leads me to a little side note about how Sam Jackson became Nick Fury after Mark Millar used his likeness for the character without gaining advance permission. That gamble turned out well in the end for all, and Fury is firmly entrenched as an MCU anchor and will appear in 2023’s Secret Invasion series for Disney+. That’s quite the elaborate setup, but Stallone seems perfectly cool with not taking that career route. He’s definitely doing great and even revealed to THR that he turned down $34 million to star in Rambo IV as conceived in the late 1980s while shooting Rambo III. Stallone did continue with that role later down the line, but the rest is cinematic history.
Now, we’ll soon see him take over your TV. Tulsa King premieres on November 13.
(Via Hollywood Reporter)
