While not all is well in the world of the “Rocky” franchise—Sylvester Stallone is currently warring with producer Irwin Winkler, incensed that Winkler won’t give him back the rights to the character he created— the spin-off “Creed” franchise is seemingly pretty healthy.
The sequel was successful enough for the studio to move forward with a third pic in the sports drama series. “Creed III” will see the franchise star Michael Jordan make his feature film directorial debut and has rising star Jonathan Majors (“Lovecraft Country,” “Devotion”) playing his next opponent. However, we’ll have to wait a little longer to get our hands on that third installment, as Variety has revealed that MGM recently pushed the film’s release date from November 23 of this year to March 3, 2023. Part of that likely has to do with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which is already due in theaters this November: director Ryan Coogler launched the “Creed” franchise, remains an executive producer, and likely doesn’t want his two films competing against each other.
Either way, don’t expect to see Stallone in the upcoming pic. The actor announced his retirement from the Rocky character in 2018 in a now-deleted Instagram post, but things have been getting seriously heated between him and Winkler and part of it because of another spin-off idea.
The Wrap reported this week that MGM has hired screenwriter Robert Lawton (“Crave”) to pen a “Drago” spin-off project that would focus on Dolph Lundgren’s character from 1985’s “Rocky IV.” Although plot details weren’t mentioned in the report, it seems the movie will focus on the boxing career of his son Viktor Drago, featured in “Rocky II,” played by “Shang-Chi” actor Florian Munteanu. Though who knows, maybe we could get some flashbacks to Lundgren’s young Drago character?
Either way, it’s “Drago” that has incensed Stallone. Stallone posted on Instagram and railed against Winkler, who he said, “Once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me … I APOLOGIZE to the FANS, I never wanted ROCKY characters to be exploited by these parasites.”
Stallone wrote the screenplay of “Rocky” in 1975 and created the entire character. While his career was already in the works, “Rocky” changed everything for him and, in many ways, is akin to what Matt Damon and Ben Affleck did to write their way into the business with “Good Will Hunting.” The film won the Oscar for Best Picture that year (with Winkler as a producer), Best Director for John G. Avildsen, and Best Editing. It was nominated for seven other Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Stallone and Stallone’s Best Screenplay. Unfortunately, the way rights, Hollywood, and capitalism work, it’s doubtful that the 93-year-old Winkler will turn over the lucrative rights to the franchise to Stallone out of the goodness of his own heart.
With Amazon’s new ownership of MGM, it’s unknown if this “Drago” project will be developed as a theatrical/hybrid release or simply a Prime Video exclusive, as the streaming service will likely be expected to mine the studio’s film library for a bevy of reboots and remakes. But right now, with all the controversy, perhaps there are bigger fish to fry first.