Actor Sylvester Stallone has been quite vocal about not having any ownership of his creation, the Rocky franchise. The titular character of the iconic movies was created by the actor in 1976, when the movie went on to land ten Academy Award nominations, won three, and spurred many spin-offs that are relevant four decades later. The upcoming Creed III, directed and starred in by Michael B Jordan, will mark the first feature sans Stallone. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the action star elaborated on what made him so angry as to publicly display his displeasure about Rocky spin-offs and the direction he would have taken Creed III in if he was involved.
Earlier this year in July, Stallone took to Instagram and slammed the makers of Drago, a Creed spin-off that was announced and center around Dolph Lundgren’s character and his son Viktor Drago, played by Florian Munteanu. Commenting on his outburst, the actor revealed the real reason that made him angry, saying, “They wanted another Rocky. And I was willing to do it. But I said, “After 45 years, can we change the playing field a little bit? Level it out? Can’t I get a piece of what I created all these years ago?” This wasn’t the first instance either, Stallone has openly resented the producers of the Rocky franchise since 2019 for not giving him his due.
In the same post, he also name-dropped his friend and Drago actor Lundgren, but revealed that the two have made up since. He further argued that it was a classic case of the producers “going around and trying to continually cherry-pick aspects of Rocky without even asking me if I want to join in.” Adding, “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.”
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The glory of the Rocky franchise can be completely attributed to Stallone, who wrote and starred in the Academy-award-winning original movie that spun into a trilogy. He made a return to the Creed franchise to reprise his role but was dissatisfied with not having any control over it. He calls his absence from the upcoming feature a “regretful situation,” as in his head it could have been a different thing. He explains:
“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 III is slated for March 3, 2023 release date, Stallone will be next seen in Tulsa King premiering on November 13 on Paramount+. You can check out the trailer below:
