Michael B. Jordan explains why Stallone is not appearing in Creed III

This weekend sees the release of Creed III, the third installment of the Rocky spin-off... and the first film in the saga in which Rocky does not actually appear. Adonis Creed will be the absolute protagonist, continuing the legacy of the legendary boxer from Philadelphia, who will not appear in the new installment of the franchise. Michael B. Jordan, who plays Adonis, has come out to explain the reasons for this conspicuous absence.

"First of all, Sly and Rocky's DNA is through this entire franchise," Jordan explains. " You can't have these movies [without that]. "That underdog spirit, I think, connects the underdog in all of us. I think what we love about these movies so much is that we see somebody that's going through hardships, that's able to rise from the ashes and reach the mountaintop, and we connect with that. For us, we connect with characters that can do the same, and that's what we want to do with Adonis Creed.”

"The first movie was a lot about that [Rocky and Apollo]," Jordan continues. "The second film was really Adonis Creed trying to come out of Apollo Creed's shadow, and being comfortable in his own skin." According to him, after defeating Viktor Drago - son of Ivan, who killed Apollo in Rocky IV - Jordan and director Ryan Coogler realized that the saga should “stand on Adonis' shoulders.”

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Stallone, at odds with a former friend

Despite Jordan's explanations, which may be more or less convincing, the reality is that Sylvester Stallone has a major feud with producer and screenwriter Irwin Winkler. Stallone has made it public that he has never seen a penny beyond his role as the boxer, a franchise that has generated millions of dollars for four decades, not only in box office revenues but also in merchandising sales and so on.

What seems clear is that Stallone has shelved another of the characters he made famous after John Rambo, whom he retired in 2019's Rambo: Last Blood.

Source | ComicBook