Sylvester Stallone won’t be joining Creed 3 and had a very different idea for the sequel.
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 76-year-old Rocky star explained that the upcoming Creed 3 was taken in a “very different direction” from what he originally envisaged.
“That’s a regretful situation because I know what it could have been,” he said. “It was taken in a direction that is quite different than I would’ve taken it. It’s a different philosophy — Irwin Winkler’s and Michael B. Jordan’s. I wish them well, but I’m much more of a sentimentalist. I like my heroes getting beat up, but I just don’t want them going into that dark space. I just feel people have enough darkness.”
Creed 3 sees Michael B. Jordan return as Adonis – the son of Rocky legend, Apollo Creed. However, this time around, it looks as though he won’t be facing up to anyone from Rocky’s or his father’s past, instead he will be tackling his own demons in the form of his friend, Dame Anderson (Jonathan Majors).
The film’s recent trailer gives us a glimpse of what to expect - when a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy resurfaces after serving a long sentence in prison, he’s eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. But it’s more than just a fight. To settle the score, Adonis must put his future on the line to battle Damian – a fighter who has nothing to lose.
How would Stallone have tackled it? We have no idea… but we do know why he won’t be back.
Stallone has been pretty vocal about losing the rights to Rocky – even calling out Dolph Lundgren for agreeing to the upcoming Rocky spin-off, Drago.
Although he and Dolph have since patched things up, he’s still annoyed by what happened.
“This is a classic case of them going around and trying to continually cherry-pick aspects of Rocky without even asking me if I want to join in,” he said. “I’m not an executive producer on the Creed movies. [Director] Ryan Coogler is. [Star] Michael B. Jordan is. [Winkler and Chartoff’s] children are. Not mine. I’m the only one left out.”
Stallone recently called out producer Irwin Winkler, demanding the rights back… but it looks as though he’s getting nowhere.
“No. It’s never gonna happen,” he said. “It was a deal that was done unbeknownst to me by people that I thought were close to me and they basically gave away whatever rights I would have had. At the time I was so excited to be working and I didn’t understand this is a business. Who knew Rocky would go on for another 45 years? I’ve never used one [line of dialogue] from anyone else — and the irony is that I don’t own any of it. The people who have done literally nothing, control it.”
Whether or not Stallone will ever return to the franchise remains to be seen. But for now, don’t expect him to make an appearance in the upcoming Creed sequel… or the Rocky spin-off, either.
Want to read more about Creed 3? Find out why Stallone isn’t returning for Creed 3 and why Stallone is campaigning to get his Rocky rights back.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/creed-3-is-a-regretful-situation-for-sylvester-stallone-i-know-what-it-could-have-been