Rambo is back on the warpath. US film star Sylvester Stallone has revealed that his muscle-packed combat hero Rambo is getting ready to draw blood again in a fifth sequel next year.

US actor Sylvester Stallone greets fans upon his arrival for the premiere of Rambo in Tokyo on May 8, 2008. (Photo: AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura)

Stallone – now 71 – posted a teaser poster on his Instagram account late Tuesday (May 8), showing a graffiti-style image of Hollywood’s most famous Vietnam veteran kneeling with his signature knife and the words: “Rambo V. Fall 2019.”

“Something wicked is coming this way,” the actor commented in a caption, a decade after his character last strapped on his famous headband and fired a hail of bullets at ruthless rogue soldiers in conflict-torn Myanmar.

The film’s producers, Millennium Media, are selling the international rights for Rambo V at the Cannes film festival, which opened Tuesday.

The latest instalment in the franchise – launched with Bad Blood in 1982 – is slated to start filming in September in several locations including London, Bulgaria and the Canary Islands, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

In the new movie, John Rambo has swapped blood-drenched jungles for quiet ranch living in Arizona as he struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder.

But when a friend’s granddaughter is kidnapped by a Mexican sex-trafficking cartel, Rambo cannot but jump back into action and join the hunt for the missing girl.

What ensues promises “a violent descent into hell”, said Hollywood Reporter.