There’s no denying that Rocky Balboa, as portrayed by Sylvester Stallone over the decades, is one of the most recognizable characters to ever grace a film screen. It’s impossible to separate Rocky from Stallone, as the actor-writer-director was the man behind nearly every aspect of the first film and is the lynchpin to the whole franchise. And yet, when you hear Stallone talk about the current state of the “Rocky” franchise, it’s just filled with anger and regret, as the actor has no producing power and no rights to claim in the film series. He just has to sit back and watch his creation get pulled through the studio system without any say.
Speaking to THR, in a new profile about his career as he promotes his new series, “Tulsa King,” Sylvester Stallone opened up about his current issues with the “Rocky” franchise, including its spinoffs like “Creed” and the potential “Drago.” Needless to say, Stallone is upset over not having any say in the direction of the characters, and he definitely disagrees with what is being done with “Rocky” now.
Again, there was a recent post on Instagram where Stallone posted his anger about not having any say in the future of “Rocky” because he also has no stake in the rights of the character. And when asked if he ever sees a time when he’ll get back the rights to the character, Stallone replied, “No. It’s never gonna happen.”
That means he sits back and watches as the “Creed” franchise continues without him, a potential “Drago” spinoff is in the cards, and there’s talk of a new streaming series. All of this is happening without his involvement or at least he’s just attached as an actor, not a producer.
Apparently, the rights issues came up when the studio approached him about a new “Rocky” project and he said he would do it if he got some of the rights back. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Then came news that Dolph Lundgren was attached to a potential “Drago” project, based on the character from the beloved “Rocky IV.” Reports surfaced that Stallone was mad at Lundgren for going behind his back to work on the project. But really, the actor said he was just upset that the producers are just “going around and trying to continually cherry-pick aspects of Rocky without even asking me if I want to join in. I’m not an executive producer on the ‘Creed’ movies. [Director] Ryan Coogler is. [Star] Michael B. Jordan is. [Producers Irvin Winkler and Bob Chartoff’s] children are. Not mine. I’m the only one left out.”
This includes the aforementioned “Creed,” which he was a part of for the first two films. However, when “Creed III” was announced, Stallone was said to not be involved at all.
“That’s a regretful situation because I know what it could have been,” said Stallone about “Creed III.” “It was taken in a direction that is quite different than I would’ve taken it. It’s a different philosophy – Irwin Winkler’s and Michael B. Jordan’s. I wish them well, but I’m much more of a sentimentalist. I like my heroes getting beat up, but I just don’t want them going into that dark space. I just feel people have enough darkness.”
As for any future “Rocky” projects that he could be part of, there’s the potential Amazon series that was reportedly in development. He’s not sure it will happen, and Stallone isn’t even sure it should happen.
“It may happen again because now Amazon’s involved. It’s pretty close,” he said. “There’s a side of me that goes: Is this really going to work? Every time you try to do Son of Kong, Son of Tarzan, it doesn’t work. There’s a certain indescribable formula that happens.”
As for another classic Stallone franchise that has an uncertain future, the actor gave an update about the potential “Rambo” prequel he was trying to get made. Apparently, it’s going to happen, but it’s definitely not his original idea.
“I think it’s going to happen,” teased Stallone. “I wanted to do it like a Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam, where you drop young Rambo in there and he’s this outgoing guy, football captain, and then you see why he becomes Rambo. But what they want to do is a modern-day story where I pass the torch. That’s getting close.”
As you can see, there’s a lot going on in the world of Sylvester Stallone and his classic franchises. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that Stallone gets much of a say.