“There’s no enemy like the past,” and the past is certainly catching up with Adonis Creed in “Creed III.” And star Michael B. Jordan is doing triple duty on this film with all of it on his shoulders. He’s the star, a producer, and now a filmmaker. Yes, Jordan makes his directorial debut in “Creed III,” which is impressive because starting out on a big, dynamic boxing franchise is difficult to pull off. But the new trailer for “Creed III” looks excellent.
In this installment of the popular “Creed” franchise, life has moved on, and everyone is older, including Adonis and Bianca’s child, who is no longer just a baby. Furthermore, “Creed III” picks up where “Creed II” left off, which was by ending the Rocky Balboa story and Sylvester Stallone’s participation and finally letting “Creed” take off as its own independent franchise.
Co-starring again, Tessa Thompson and Phylicia Rashad, the newcomer to the series is rising star Jonathan Majors (“Loki,” “Lovecraft Country,” “The Harder They Fall”), who plays the new antagonist in the film. As you can tell from the trailer, he does not appear to be Clubber Lang’s son, as was suggested in previous rumors. Instead, he’s playing a childhood friend of Adonis’ who got a raw deal and spent a big chunk of his life in prison. Bitter about his experience, he seems to blame Adonis for what happened, and his revenge will be humiliation and stripping the boxing champion of his titles.
While Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther”) directed the first film and has seemingly moved on, he’s still involved. He’s a producer on this film again, and Coogler also shares the story credits with Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin, the pair who penned the screenplay.
“Creed III” also stars Wood Harris as Tony “Little Duke” Evers and Florian Munteanu, returning as Viktor Drago. Additional actors include Selenis Leyva, Thaddeus J. Mixson, Spence Moore II, Mila Davis-Kent, and Canelo Álvarez, but all of those roles are undisclosed for now.
“Creed III” arrives in theaters on March 3, 2023. Check out the new trailer below.
Update: #Creed3 also got an extended #SuperBowl TV-Spot.