There's a long-standing rumor that Predator started life as a joke pitch about Rocky boxing an alien, but is there any truth to this? Rocky arrived in 1976 and told the moving story of an underdog boxer (played by star/screenwriter Sylvester Stallone) being given an unexpected chance to prove his worth. The movie was a huge success, and Stallone would return to the role for a series of entertaining but increasingly glossy sequels.

By the time Rocky IV hit screens in 1985, he was boxing the larger-than-life Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who was basically a hulking metaphor for the Cold War. Drago was such a cartoonish foe that soon a joke went around that the only logical next step would be for Rocky to box an alien for the fifth movie. Stallone's rival Arnold Schwarzenegger would later face off against an alien foe in 1987's Predator, with the finale seeing his commando fighting the creature one on one.

Related: How Sylvester Stallone Ranked The First 5 Rocky Movies

Rocky V eventually arrived in 1990, but instead of fighting an alien, it was a somewhat misguided attempt to bring the series back to its roots. Over the years, its become something of an accepted fact that the seed for Predator was born from the "Rocky Vs Alien" gag. Even various articles from the time the movie was released made the link, such as Predator Joel Silver laughing at the joke during a Starlog interview, and stating they beat Stallone to the idea. That said, it doesn't appear to be true.

A Gamesradar article with series creators Jim and John Thomas states they started working on Hunter - which was later retitled Predator - in 1983 and finished it in September of that year. That's two years before Rocky IV was released and in other interviews, they revealed the idea originally started with the idea of a "brotherhood" of aliens coming to Earth to stalk human prey. They eventually decided on one hunter, who would chase a team of elite soldiers until only one was left. The brothers later sold the script to the movie's co-producer in 1984, and Schwarzenegger and Silver became attached the following year after making Commando.

It's possible the Rocky V alien gag later inspired 20th Century Fox to give Predator a greenlight, but it definitely wasn't what originated the idea. The sequels that followed Rocky IV took the franchise back down to Earth, and that entry now feels like something of an anomaly in the series. Drago himself was later brought back for 2018's Creed 2, which did a great job of fleshing out his character and depicting him as an actual human being. While the Predator eventually fought the Alien in 2004, it seems very unlikely he'll be fighting Rocky anytime soon - sadly.

Next: The Deleted Predator Weapon That (Accidentally) Still Appears In The Movie