Hollywood seems to be very eager to make Michael B. Jordan the next big thing. First garnering notice for his work in the low-budget superhero movie Chronicle, the young actor earned rave reviews earlier this year for his starring role in Sundance Winner Fruitvale Station, and since then has been rumored for some major upcoming projects - including the Fantastic Four reboot, a Rocky spin-off, the Independence Day sequel, and even Star Wars: Episode VII. What's really crazy, however, is that all three of the stories have at least a grain of truth to them. The Huffington Post recently had the chance to catch up with Jordan at People magazine's "Ones To Watch" party, and during the course of the interview the site got him to comment on his status in regard to all three films.
Of the aforementioned projects, the only one that appears to be a lock at this point is the Rocky spin-off. As we reported back in July, the movie will be titled Creed and will star Jordan as the grandson of Rocky Balboa's rival-turned-friend Apollo Creed. Sylvester Stallone will reprise his classic role in the new movie and will serve as the young star's coach. "That's amazing, I can't wait to do it," Jordan told HuffPost. "That definitely is going on." The film will reunite him with Fruitvale Station director Ryan Coogler, but that may not be the only reunion in Jordan's future...
I am, of course, referring to the Fantastic Four rumors, as the actor signing on would mean him once again working with Chronicle helmer Josh Trank. We first heard about Jordan's potential involvement with the film in May - when he was rumored to be up for the part of Johnny Storm a.k.a. The Human Torch - but that rumor only intensified yesterday when it was reported that Jordan remains the director's only choice for the part. Unfortunately, the actor couldn't really talk much about the movie, saying only, "Definitely interested in the project. Josh Trank is a buddy of mine."
Of all the rumored projects mentioned in the interview with Jordan, Independence Day 2 is perhaps the freshest, as those stories only started popping up online late last month, and as a result, the Fruitvale Station star didn't have much to say about it outside of saying that he is a big fan of Will Smith, who starred in the 1996 original. "If that came true, that would be cool, too."
Finally, there's the Star Wars: Episode VII talk. Jordan was paired with The Butler star David Oyelowo in a rumor that started going around in September, and while talking about a possible role in the sci-fi epic Echoing comments from actress Saoirse Ronan about auditioning, Jordan told the site, "I mean, everybody's going in on this project. They're trying to figure out what they want," he said. "That's another incredible franchise. It's pretty crazy! ... We'll see how it happens. I don't know how I can do everything."
Doing everything certainly would be a challenge. Of the four projects mentioned, three of them are currently scheduled to arrive in theaters in 2015, and the truth of the matter is that Creed could come out some time that year as well. That said, at this point it doesn't look like The Fantastic Four is going to be making its March 2015 release date, and Roland Emmerich recently said that Independence Day 2 might not be ready in time to come out in July 2015. So maybe he can do it all...
