With his new action film Without Remorse, Michael B. Jordan is repeating the successful formula he found by starring in the Creed films. Jordan stars as Navy SEAL Senior Chief John Kelly in the adaptation of Tom Clancy's 1993 geopolitical spy thriller and he signed a two-picture deal so that he would turn in a sequel, an adaptation of Clancy's 1998 Rainbow Six. But Jordan's star power really got red hot when he headlined Creed with Sylvester Stallone.
In 2015's Creed, Jordan played Adonis Creed, the illegitimate son of Apollo Creed who was adopted by the heavyweight champion's widow, Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad). Adonis spurned his business degree to pursue his passion for fighting, and he traveled to Philadelphia to seek out Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), Apollo's best friend and greatest rival, to be his trainer. With Rocky's help, Adonis overcame his insecurities and became a top-caliber fighter worthy of his last name. In Creed II, Adonis became the heavyweight champion of the world like Rocky and Apollo were. But Adonis also had to face the hulking Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), the son of Rocky's enemy Ivan Drago (Dolph Lungren). As Adonis struggled to overcome a beating from Viktor and defeat him in a rematch, Creed also saw the birth of his daughter with his wife Bianca (Tessa Thompson).
While Without Remorse is a violent action film and not a sports movie, Jordan returned to the proven formula that worked with Creed. The actor joined the successful and long-running Jack Ryan movie franchise by starring in a spinoff, just as he took on headlining Creed, a spinoff of the even-longer-running and beloved Rocky movie franchise. Creed was an updated take on the Rocky story, with an interesting twist that made Balboa the mentor to his best friend's son, but it still loyally replicated all of Rocky's best-known tropes and it pleased old and new fans alike. Similarly, Without Remorse updates the Jack Ryan films but it's about John Kelly, a popular character from Tom Clancy's novels who has his own corner of the Jack Ryan universe fighting terrorists under the alias of CIA "ghost" operative John Clark. Since the most recent Jack Ryan movies and John Krasinski's Amazon Prime Jack Ryan series melded blockbuster action with spy games, Without Remorse is playing in the same sandbox using the same tropes.
The way Without Remorse connects to the Jack Ryan films is less direct than Creed but no less clever. Along with Jack Ryan's antagonist Robert Ritter, played by Jamie Bell in Without Remorse, Jordan's espionage thriller features a new character, Lieutenant Commander Karen Greer (Jodie Turner-Smith), who is the niece of Jack Ryan's mentor James Greer, just as Adonis is the blood relative of Apollo Creed. Further, Without Remorse's John Kelly is also driven to uncover a global conspiracy because terrorists attacked his pregnant wife Pam (Lauren London). In Creed II, becoming a husband and father is also a deciding factor in whether Adonis wants to beat Viktor Drago to avenge his humiliation.
Like Sylvester Stallone did with Rocky and Rambo, Michael B. Jordan is smartly building major movie franchises for himself to star in, even if the sought-after star doesn't return as Erik Killmonger in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In fact, Jordan is taking full control of his boxing franchise and directing Creed III. It remains to be seen how many sequels Without Remorse will get and if Michael B. Jordan will want to direct one, but he's clearly found a recipe for Hollywood success.
