Noah Centineo is to star in the Rambo origins movie.

The 29-year-old actor has joined the cast of John Rambo, which will serve as a prequel to the popular action franchise that starred Sylvester Stallone as the PTSD-plagued Vietnam War veteran.

Insiders say that the movie is expected to shoot in early 2026 in Thailand and that Lionsgate is the front-runner to land the package after releasing two previous films in the series.

John Rambo will be directed by Jalmari Helander from a screenplay by writing pair Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani.

The plot of the movie is being kept under wraps but it will be the origin story of a young John Rambo set during the Vietnam War.

The original Rambo film was released in 1982 and Sylvester subsequently played the character in four sequels that have generated over US$800 million (S$1.02 billion) at the worldwide box office.

Noah has starred in the Netflix show The Recruit as well as the 2022 superhero movie Black Adam.

He is also set to appear in the movie adaptation of the classic video game Street Fighter, which also stars Jason Momoa and Andrew Koji and is slated for release in 2026.

Sylvester had previously suggested that he wanted Barbie star Ryan Gosling to succeed him as Rambo after discovering that the latter was a big fan of the franchise growing up.

The 79-year-old actor told The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last year: "I met him at a dinner and obviously we're opposites. He's good-looking — I'm not. That's how it works.

"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, this is interesting. If I ever pass the baton, I'll pass it on to him because he loves the character."

His last appearance as the character was in the critically-panned 2019 flick Rambo: Last Blood and he confessed that he annoyed his family with the role as he prepared by becoming "reticent" like his alter-ego.

He told Collider at the time: "I start to brood and become reticent. I'm not very popular around the house, even the dog notices. I stare a lot and really retreat."

Sly also spoke about how his tough childhood helped him to perfect the character of Rambo, who was first introduced in David Morrell's 1972 novel First Blood.

He said: "Like a lot of people my early life wasn't perfect. I find that people complain, 'I'm a failure because my father was mean, my mother was mean.' Everyone has those problems, so that's no excuse."

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