When Michael B. Jordan starred in Creed he brought new life into the dormant Rocky franchise. The first two movies in the series have brought back a few other characters from the series, but one very important character has been missing. We learn in the first movie that Rocky’s wife Adrian has passed away, but actress Talia Shire has an idea how she can still be part of a future Creed movie.
Appearing on the red carpet for the re-release of The Godfather, Talia Shire, who played Adrian in the Rocky franchise, spoke with CinemaBlend’s Jeff McCobb, and said that, if asked, she would love to appear in a future Creed film, and that she could appear alongside Sylvester Stallone in some sort of dream sequence. Shire explained…
I love the collaborations that I've had with Sylvester because I love him… I think I should be in a dream sequence. Rocky can carry me around as his bride. Remember that? Have you noticed I’m a bride in all of these movies?
Adrian, whose name alone is an iconic part of the franchise, is referenced in the original Creed, and the restaurant that Rocky runs is named after her, but that’s about all we get of the woman that was Rocky Balboa’s whole world throughout the entire franchise.
As ideas go, this certainly isn’t a bad one. Adrian certainly wouldn’t be the first character in a franchise to return via dream sequence. At the same time, the Rocky movies aren't exactly known for dream sequences, so adding one would probably feel a little out of place.
The bigger problem, however, is that in order to get Adrian and Rocky together again for any sort of scene, you need to get not only Talia Shire, but Sylvester Stallone on board, and at this point that seems unlikely. Stallone has said he’s officially done with playing Rocky, and with Creed III production underway, the odds of anything happening this time around seem to be zero.
But who knows, if the Creed franchise ends up making as many movies as the Rocky franchise did, then we’re not even half way through it yet, and if that’s the case anything is possible. One can imagine a moment in some future film where Rocky actually passes away, and maybe, when that happens, we could get that dream sequence moment of Rocky and Adrian together again at last.
Maybe, when the franchise comes to an end we can see something like that. Adonis Creed will finally get to stand on his own in Creed III, and it seems like the best thing for the series right now is to let it move away from being part of the Rocky franchise and let it be its own thing.
