With Stallone reportedly not returning for Creed III, it's almost inevitable that Rocky will be killed off - but it would be far better if he wasn't. Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa is one of cinema's most iconic characters, and Rocky was a film that redefined the scope of sports movies. Spawning a franchise that has lasted over 45 years and is still going strong, Rocky has been a mainstay both of the franchise and of audiences' screens.
However, Stallone has claimed that he will not be returning for the upcoming spin-off threequel Creed III. 2015's Creed saw the franchise shift focus to Michael B. Jordan's Adonis Creed, the son of Apollo Creed, with Stallone's Rocky reduced to a supporting role. Stallone believes that Creed III doesn't need Rocky Balboa, and while the character's story might be all but over, he's not entirely correct.
If Stallone will indeed not play a role in Creed III, the most likely explanation for his absence will be the character's death. So many of the Rocky franchise's characters have been killed off over the span of its eight existing films that it seems inevitable - although there is an alternate possibility that could be far more appealing. In order to give Rocky Balboa the ending he deserves, it would be far better if Creed III let him live.
The Rocky franchise's new titular protagonist, Adonis Creed, has so far been defined by the death of his father, Apollo Creed. With Creed 2's story concerning a grudge match between Adonis and the son of Rocky IV's Ivan Drago, Adonis' sense of grief and difficulty rationalizing his loss was seemingly resolved. This would pave the way for a slightly new narrative in which Rocky doesn't die - since Rocky III, almost every story has dealt with the death of a character or its aftermath, so flipping the script by having Rocky bow out without dying would set the character's ending apart.
Instead of having Rocky die in Creed III, allowing him to retire peacefully from the boxing world without the need for more loss. While his death would provide Adonis with another father figure to grieve in the sequel, allowing Balboa to live would show much more growth, and set him apart from all the other Rocky characters that Stallone killed off. Instead of dying, Rocky could simply live out the rest of his days off-screen with his surviving family, giving at least one Rocky character a happy ending.
Still, it seems almost a given at this point that Rocky will die in Creed III. After all, he's faced a number of health scares within the franchise's narrative, and the character's age combined with Stallone's desire not to return all seem to point towards a more definite end to Balboa. However, if Creed III kills off Rocky, it'll be missing a golden opportunity to distance itself from the older era of the Rocky franchise.
