Remember when they used to make animated series out of any hit franchise going? Mark Harrison does…
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Rambo: The Force Of Freedom
In an alternate ending for 1982’s First Blood, traumatised Vietnam War veteran John Rambo commits suicide. However, in post-production, director Ted Kotcheff and writer/star Sylvester Stallone opted for the canon ending where Rambo surrenders.
Had they kept the original, we certainly wouldn’t have four more Rambo sequels, and it might have dented the film’s viability for animated spin-off series as well. As it is, Ruby-Spears Productions created Rambo: The Force Of Freedom, a G.I. JOE-alike action series that ran for 65 episodes in 1986.
Battling the evil organisation S.A.V.A.G.E. (that’s Specialist-Administrators of Vengeance, Anarchy and Global Extortion when it’s at home), Rambo and his “toyetic” friends travel the globe, pausing only to play with animals and teach children how to be good. Stallone was reportedly not best pleased but continued pancaking enemy combatants in the live-action franchise up until 2019’s Rambo: Last Blood.