Creed II wasn’t quite the knockout that its predecessor was, but you can’t be a reboot of the Rocky series without going back to the well for an endless string of increasingly ill-advised sequels. According to Deadline, MGM is putting a third Creed movie into development, with Zach Baylin (the writer behind King Richard, the Will Smith movie about Venus and Serena Williams’ father) handling the script. Deadline says Michael B. Jordan is “expected to reprise his role” as Adonis Creed, but there’s no word on who might direct or who else might be in the movie. Back in 2018, Sylvester Stallone suggested that he was done playing Rocky Balboa, despite Rocky’s major presence in the two Creed movies, so even he might not be back this time around. (Of course, Stallone could easily be swayed by a nice check, and it’s not like he hates bringing back the same old characters over and over again.)
Here’s the thing, though: Creed II already pulled out the nuclear option by bringing back Ivan Drago, the most iconic villain of the Rocky series and the man who killed Adonis Creed’s father back in Rocky IV, with Adonis fighting his son Viktor. Where could Creed III possibly go to raise the stakes from there? Is Adonis going to fight Milo Ventimiglia? Did Thunderlips from Rocky III also have a son who grew up hating Rocky? They should just go full stupid sci-fi and have Adonis fight some kind of Apollo Creed cyborg. Then you’d really have a stew going.