With the trend of nostalgia dictating the way movies and TV shows are produced, there are tons of reboots and long awaited sequels in the works. But some of these projects stand out among the rest, in both quality and box office performance. Chief among them is Ryan Coogler's Creed, which served as a spinoff for the massively popular Rocky franchise. It was a critical success, earning Sylvester Stallone an Oscar nomination in the process. Stallone, Tessa Thompson, and Michael B. Jordan are all returning for Creed II, and a new trailer has revealed more of the upcoming sequel's plot. It also featured Rocky trying talk some sense into Adonis. Check it out.
Does anyone else have chills? There are conflicts new and old coming from Creed II, and it looks like Rocky and his protege are going to be sitting on opposite sides of the aisle. At least for a while.
The Creed II trailer opens with the title character going through some new intense training montage, as Rocky looks on. After fighting in a homemade ring, Creed also stands as Rocky uses a medicine ball to essentially beat his student. It's unclear how or why these sequences occur, but they're a starting way to return to the franchise, and the characters audiences know and love. The sequence likely occurred in preparation for Creed II's big fight, which is set up in the rest of the trailer.
After losing his fight in the original Creed, Adonis is still struggling to find his place in the world. He and girlfriend Bianca Porter (Tessa Thompson) are living together, and even give birth to their first child. While the timeline is unclear (there's a shot of Bianca pregnant as well), this new sense of responsibility and familial connection is weighing on him, and forming some inner conflict about his chosen profession. Because with a family to think about, boxing suddenly becomes far more dangerous.
Unfortunately, Michael B. Jordan's character is going to be going up against an extremely brutal and dangerous foe in Creed II-- and one with an intimate connection to his past. He'll be facing Viktor Drago, the son of Dolph Lundgren's iconic character Ivan. Ivan Drago killed Creed's father, so the emotional stakes are going to be extremely high throughout the course of the film-- and especially the fight itself.
This connection to the past obviously affects Sylvester Stallone's Rocky, who also has his own relationship to Creed. Rocky saw Apollo Creed die in front of his eyes, and doesn't want to see the same from his son. Rocky Balboa knows the physical and emotional toll that boxing takes, and fears for Adonis' life. Viktor Drago is notoriously brutal and dangerous, and will likely take things too far within the ring.
All will be revealed when Creed II arrives in theaters on November 21, 2018. In the meantime, check out our 2018 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.
