Creed III begins filming later in 2021, confirms returning star Tessa Thompson. The story of Rocky Balboa seemed to have long since its course when in 2015 Sylvester Stallone’s famed underdog character surprisingly returned for one more go-around in Creed, starring Michael B. Jordan as the son of Rocky’s late opponent and friend Apollo Creed.
With Jordan and writer-director Ryan Coogler bringing new life to the Rocky universe, Creed went on to gross $173 million at the box office while snagging a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for Stallone as an older and frailer but still feisty Rocky. Following on the success of that film, 2018 saw the arrival of Creed II, which further mirrored the arc of the original Rocky films by pitting Adonis Creed against the son of Ivan Drago, the man who killed his father in the ring (while affording Drago and Rocky one more chance to face off). It remains to be seen how a third Creed film will continue building on the legacy of the first two, but a third movie is indeed coming with Jordan himself taking on directorial duties.
Creed III does not yet have a release date, but the movie is set to go before cameras later in 2021 as confirmed by Thompson. Speaking to MTV News about her new movie Sylvie’s Love, Thompson joked about her co-star and now director Jordan recently being named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine, and in the process revealed some info about when cameras begin rolling:
He is directing the next Creed. So it’s going to be ammo I think for me when he is engaging with me as a director, I’m just going to tell him to dial down the sexiness. But we’re not going to make it until later in the year so who knows what happens? I don’t know if he’ll still be the sexiest man alive in six months.
Plot specifics on Creed III are not known at this time, but it was reported back in February that the script is being written by Zach Baylin, who also penned the upcoming Will Smith film King Richard, a biopic of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams’ father. Jordan makes his directorial debut on the film, while Thompson returns for a third go-around as Bianca, Adonis Creed’s hearing-impaired musician wife. It’s not yet known if Stallone will be back as Rocky for a ninth time.
The fact that a third Creed film is coming is of course no surprise given the box office success of the first two. Obviously, the original Rocky series kept going for many sequels over many years, with the movies becoming increasingly ridiculous as they went along. The first Creed actually represented a return to the grounded storytelling of the original Rocky, but as more movies are released in the series, is Creed also doomed to become cartoonish nonsense as the Rocky movies did? Creed III will be an interesting movie to watch as Jordan takes over directorial duties (just as Stallone took over directing the Rocky movies) and has even more responsibility on his shoulders when it comes to keeping Adonis Creed going as a screen character. Stallone’s ego of course eventually took over everything in the Rocky movies, but maybe Jordan can avoid such self-indulgent pitfalls.
Source: MTV News/YouTube