Sylvester Stallonemay have been saying goodbye to a number of his biggest franchise roles recently, but that doesn’t mean we have seen the last of the action hero. TheRockystar is all set to appear in the new seriesKansas CityonParamount+, which comes from the creators ofBoardwalk Empireand current hitYellowstone. Having just finished up filming onThe Expendables4and also reprised his role for filming ofGuardians of the Galaxy 3, Stallone is just as popular and in demand now as he has ever been. His latest role will be the 75 year old’s first lead role in a TV series.
Since kicking off his acting career decades ago, Stallone has very rarely stopped working, whether it has been as an actor, producer, director or writer, but somehow Stallone has never played a lead character in a TV show. Thanks to the number of streaming platforms now putting out new content and most of them seeming to have a bottomless budget to work with, it looks like you are never too old to try something new, and having recently voiced King Shark in James Gunn’sThe Suicide Squad, played a superhero in the soon to be releasedSamaritanand released his new cut ofRocky IV, why shouldn’t he take a shot at practically the only thing he hadn’t done so far?
Reported inVariety, Stallone will play Sal inKansas City, a New York mob boss with legendary mafia connections who looks to bring his family back to power in Kansas City, Missouri. According to the report, Sal’s task of reestablishing his Italian mob family sees him encounter “surprising and unsuspecting characters who follow him along his unconventional path to power.” While Stallone is on top of his game as a gun-totting action hero surrounded by explosions and mercenaries, as well as being a first major role in television, the role seems to be more of a test of his acting chops rather than just flexing his muscles and firepower.
The series is co-written by Taylor Sheridan and Terence Winter, with Winter acting as showrunner while both sit as executive producers. A writers room is reported to be underway, and Stallone will also executively produce the series with David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, and Bob Yari. Sheridan has provided a huge hit for Paramount+ withYellowstone, which is currently showing its fourth season and is Paramount’s highest rated show, and is also behind prequel series1883, which arrives on the platform on December 19th. Sheridan was also behindMayor of Kingstown, which starred Jeremy Renner and launched on the platform in November.
Winter on the other hand is well known for his work on mob based dramaThe Sopranos,as well asBoardwalk EmpireandVinylfor HBO, as well as his writing work forThe Wolf of Wall Street, which gained him an Oscar nomination for his adapted screenplay. With Winter and Sheridan working together along with an old hand like Stallone, you’re able to almost guarantee another winner for Paramount+.
