Kurt Russell once pitched an 80s action star movie universe

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

The words “franchise” and “shared universe” is like catnip for movie studios now, as all of the big wigs are looking for ways to take the Marvel formula and work it into their own line-up of characters. I mean, who doesn’t want to see Tom Cruise teaming up with The Mummy to fight Frankenstein? However, the notion of a giant universe wasn’t always a hot sell for studios, and actor Kurt Russell knows that first hand.

While talking with Fox 5 out of Washington D.C. Russell mentioned early on how back in the 80s he pitched an idea for a shared universe around all the action movie stars at the time. Russell remembered the folks at the top did nothing but stare right back at him:

Years ago I did think that it would be– and nobody would listen to me–I thought it'd be great to sort of take a bunch of the characters, guys like Bruce Willis and Stallone and Schwarzenegger and whatever. They all had one best character that I thought would be interesting in the action-y world. I thought it'd be fun to put those guys together. That would've been a realistic version of what Marvel did but it was like talking to a wall. It was a little ahead of its time, I guess.

The 80s put out testosterone action flicks faster than superhero movies are put out today, with men like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger leading the pack of muscles. The team-up could’ve included the likes of Stallone’s John Rambo, Schwarzenegger’s John Matrix (from COMMANDO) and maybe even Bruce Willis’ John McClane (call it THE JOHNNIES).  Russell himself carved out his own unique character in Snake Plissken for ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, but the actor doesn’t think he’d play nice

I thought it would be really cool. And let them be the characters that they are. My thing about that was, if I was going to be Snake in that, I'm going to have to produce the movie. The only thing Snake's gonna do is walk in, look at 'em and then leave.

We did get a mesh of action icons in THE EXPENDABLES series, so I guess we don’t have to sit around all day in a deep depression about what-could-have-been. Still, it’s not too far-fetched to see the likes of Rambo or Matrix teaming up for an adventure in the jungle. Sure there are the inter-studio issues to work out, but hey, it was the 80s. I’m sure they could’ve just snorted some coke and figured it all out.

See Russell and Stallone in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 on May 5.