The Rocky and Creed franchise is growing, as MGM is developing a Drago spinoff movie. Sylvester Stallone starred in six Rocky movies over several decades following the franchise's debut in the 1976 movie. 2015 saw the series go in a brand new direction under Ryan Coogler, with Michael B. Jordan starring as Adonis Creed, the son of Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). The Creed franchise has become a bit hit for MGM and continued to play with the overall canon by having Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) return for Creed II over thirty years after playing the villain in Rocky IV.
Even though Sylvester Stallone's days of playing Rocky Balboa are in the past, the franchise will continue to live on. Jordan returns as Adonis later this year in Creed 3, which he also directs. Plot details have yet to be revealed beyond Jonathan Majors playing a mystery villain. It has been teased that Jordan and the Creed franchise could continue beyond the third installment, though. Stallone has also teased that he is working on a prequel show about Rocky Balboa.
Now, the Rocky and Creed franchise has found another avenue to continue. According to a report from The Wrap, MGM has hired screenwriter Robert Lawton to write a Creed spinoff currently titled Drago. The movie will star Dolph Lundgren as Ivan Drago and see Creed II's Florian Munteanu return as his son Viktor. Lawton reportedly got the job after impressing MGM with his spec script Becoming Rocky. The Drago spinoff movie does not yet have a release date.
The possibility of a Drago spinoff movie was previously teased by Dolph Lundgren, as he mentioned in 2021 that MGM was considering a spinoff for his character. The movie will presumably continue Ivan and Viktor's stories after the events of Creed II. The movie's ending saw them both return to Russia but with a new outlook on their relationship. It has been reported that Florian Munteanu will return as Viktor Drago for Creed III as well. This would presumably mean that the Drago spinoff movie will take place after the third entry in Jordan's franchise.
A Creed spinoff movie focused on the Drago family marks the first sign of how the franchise is going to expand after Amazon acquired MGM. Both of the Creed movies released to this point have been financial hits based on their mid-sized budgets, and it is expected that Creed 3 will be another crowd-pleaser in late 2022. It appears Amazon and MGM want to keep utilizing the recognizable IP in new ways, which is how the Drago spinoff likely came to be. There is no word on if the movie will release in theaters or go exclusively to Prime Video. But since Amazon's new MGM franchise does not have a director either and is just entering the scripting process, it could be a while before audiences see Drago. In any case, this opens the door for other Rocky and Creed spinoffs to come.
Source: The Wrap
