Recently, it feels like Sylvester Stallone has traded the silver screen for the streaming era, pivoting away from traditional Hollywood blockbusters to completely dominate the world of peak television. Tulsa King kicked off in 2022 and was met with a wealth of critical praise and impressive viewership on Paramount+. As soon as season ends, it tends to get picked up for another rapidly.
While the legendary action star has spent decades anchoring massive theatrical franchises, his recent career trajectory suggests a deliberate, permanent crossover to the small screen. Stallone hasn’t starred in a film since 2025’s highly-panned Alarum, which went straight to streaming. So, what is he up to next? And is his cross-over to television permanent? Let’s break it down.
The Big Screen Stagnation: Pre-Production Purgatory
Sylvester Stallone’s last appearance on the big screen came with the 2024 movie, Armor. However, it had a very limited release before heading over to Video-on-Demand. The year before, he showcased his final battle as mercenary Barney Ross in Expendables 4, taking a supporting role and passing the leading man baton to Jason Statham. This is where many assumed he was done with action movies for good.
However, his IMDB pages tells a different story. As an actor, Stallone is currently attached to nine different projects. Three of which are action films. Samaritan 2, despite being greenlit by Amazon MGM Studios has seen progress crawl significantly since the initial announcement. Little America, a dystopian action project that will see Stallone star as a former American Force Recon member, has languished in development without any meaningful production updates. Then there’s the action comedy flick, Never Too Old to Die. This one is set to be a more age-appropriate vehicle for Sly, seeing him take on the role of a cold war hero who sets out to find a killer at his nursing home for spies. Like the other films, this flick has spent years trapped in pre-production.
Despite being an action legend, it is entirely fair to acknowledge that at this stage of his iconic life, the gruelling physical demands of headlining intensive action cinema are shifting. Fans and media outlets recently noted Stallone utilizing a cane in public, a reminder of the immense physical toll decades of doing his own movie stunts has taken on his body. Then again, certain scenes in Tulsa King show that he still has it in him to throw down when needed.
Sylvester Stallone Is Shifting to Producing Duties
While his movie slates gather dust, Stallone’s television career is operating at high-velocity. Not only is he returning to star as the super-suave Dwight Manfredi for Tulsa King season 4, he is also reprising his character in the spinoff show, Frisco King, sharing the screen with Samuel L. Jackson. He will also be acting as executive producer for both series. But his producer duties aren’t ending there.
Stallone initially had plans to revive John Rambo for a prequel movie or series, stating he would utilize AI for de-aging. The project was set to show Rambo as a teenager before he was shipped to Vietnam and turned into a killing machine. However, the creative venture got away with him and Lionsgate and Millennium Media have developed a prequel film entitled John Rambo. Directed by Jalmari Helander (Sisu), the film will chronicle Rambo’s early years as a Green Beret during the Vietnam War. Although Stallone isn’t starring in the movie, he has stepped on board as an executive producer. John Rambo is scheduled for release on June 4, 2027.
A Potential Quentin Tarantino Collaboration Looms
Quentin Tarantino may be stalling on his tenth and final movie, but he is busy elsewhere. Over the course of his legendary career, Tarantino has offered two roles to Stallone, in Jackie Brown and Death Proof, both of which he turned down. However, according to TMZ, the two are set to team up for a TV series. Sources say it is a 1930’s set crime series shot in black and white. It will be told in six parts, charting gangsters, showgirls, boxing, and music. Reportedly, Stallone and Tarantino will share directing duties. As of right now, no casting details have been announced.
So, is the silver screen officially behind him? As Sylvester Stallone prepares to enter his 80s, it is impossible to ignore that the centre of his creative gravity has heavily shifted toward television. Between building out a massive streaming empire on Paramount+ and stepping behind the camera for prestige, episodic dramas, the small screen has given the legendary actor something traditional Hollywood currently can’t: deep, character-driven stories that don’t require him to jump out of exploding buildings.
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