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The third Rocky sequel, Creed III, reached the big screen a little over 12 months ago. The $75-million-budget release grossed over $275 million at the box office. This made it the highest-grossing Creed movie yet, but crucially the only Creed movie not featuring Rocky legend, Sylvester Stallone.
There’s no doubt that Stallone is the face of the Rocky franchise, which has cemented itself as the pinnacle of boxing movies on the big screen. In fact, most movie buffs would associate Stallone with Rocky Balboa even more so than Stallone’s other iconic role as Rambo. Yet the franchise moved into unchartered territory last year with the decision to exclude Stallone from the cast of Creed III.
If you’re just exploring the Creed sequels to the Rocky franchise, we’ll explain why Stallone doesn’t feature in the latest release. Stallone himself was quizzed on his absence from the cast of Creed III and he was quick to acknowledge there was “no room” for him in the storyline. Stallone revealed that Creed III was much more about Adonis Creed’s “family” and “his journey”, with very little to do with the boxing side of things.
Stallone’s fractured relationship with the franchise’s producers
Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that Stallone’s relationship with the Creed series is strained. With Rocky reuniting with his son and grandson at the end of Creed II, cynics will say Rocky simply doesn’t have a compelling place within the ongoing narrative of the Creed series.
Although Stallone is synonymous with the Rocky brand, the reality is that he’s never had much control over the franchise. Although he’s performed in eight movies as Balboa – and played a major role in writing the screenplay of seven of them – Stalone’s ownership of the series is minimal.
After Stallone wrote his first Rocky screenplay, he sold it on with a view to playing a key role in its cast. He only received $75,000 for acting and writing in it, plus a percentage of the profits. Producer, Irwin Winkler, was crucially given ownership of the characters themselves, leaving Stallone in a somewhat precarious position.
Stallone has publicly voiced his frustration at the fact Winkler and his late fellow producer, Robert Chartoff, own both the series and the rights to the characters. Stallone is still seemingly bitter at Winkler’s refusal to give him a greater share in the series despite the franchise being nothing without his vision and presence.
Stallone has also intimated in the past that the series would have had several more releases if he had his way. One thing we can be certain of is that Creed 4 is already in development and there’s no indication yet of Stallone’s potential involvement.
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