It was fairly inevitable that the Rocky franchise would continue following the success of Ryan Coogler's Creed back in 2015 - but development has been slow moving. Part of this is because the film has spent the last two years without a director, however, the project how now moved forward in that particular area. Sylvester Stallone officially announced that he will be directing Creed 2.
Sylvester Stallone made this announcement over his personal Instagram account, where he explained the situation rather briefly. Along with a red carpet photo of himself and Creed star Michael B. Jordan, Stallone wrote:
Sylvester Stallone is not only no stranger to directing, but the truth is that Rocky titles make up the bulk of his resume in that arena. In fact, the only series movies that he didn't make are the original Rocky and Rocky V, which were both made by John G. Avildsen. Back in 2006 he made what at the time seemed like a final hurrah move directing Rocky Balboa, but clearly he's not finished telling stories set within the world.The movie will be the first he's helmed since 2010, when he made the first The Expendables.
Of course, we can't help but notice something missing from Sylvester Stallone's announcement regarding Creed 2. In the caption he mentions that he will be both directing and producing the feature, but fails to mention whether or not he will be reprising his role as Rocky Balboa. The character wasn't exactly doing so well in the first Creed, having been diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and going through chemotherapy, so it wouldn't necessarily be the most surprising thing in the world. That being said, those hashtags could be telling us a different story, and it would be kind of crazy for Stallone to do that at this point considering he just earned an Academy Award nomination for his last performance.
With the project still a few months away from the start of production, it's understandable that we don't know too much about Creed 2 just yet. What we do know, though, is very exciting. It's been confirmed that the blockbuster will have strong ties to one of the franchises' most popular sequels, Rocky IV, and will feature the return of Dolph Lundgren's Ivan Drago. It's been teased that Drago won't be going the Rocky route in the first Creed and will still be jumping into the ring with Michael B. Jordan's young Adonis "Donnie" Johnson Creed, but we'll have to wait and see if that actually happens.
Creed 2 doesn't have a release date just yet, but keep checking back for more updates as this feature continues to make its way through development!
