Will Creed 3 Without Stallone Still Be A Rocky Movie?

All 8 Rocky Movies ranked by us, see: Ranking Stallone’s Rocky and Creed Films

Sylvester Stallone is restating that his iconic character, Rocky, won’t be in the third Creed movie. I don’t know if this means Rocky is being killed off, sent off screen for retirement or whatever, but Stallone isn’t going to be in the next Creed movie. I mean, he’s publicly stating that, anyway. Maybe he’s still in as a cameo, archival footage, part of the training montage, something.

“Yeah, I think that Sly let it be known that he wasn’t coming back for this one but I think, you know, his essence and his spirit… there’s always going to be a little bit of Rocky within Adonis,” Jordan said. “But this is a Creed franchise, and we really want to build this story and this world around him moving forward. So, it’s always respect and always a shit-ton of love for what he’s built, but we really want to push and navigate Adonis forward and the family that he created. So, hopefully you guys will love what I’m thinking… what we’re cooking up. I think it’s going to be something special.”

Michael B. Jordan on Why Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Isn’t in Creed 3

This all makes me wonder if Creed will be a Rocky movie any longer without Rocky in it? It sounds like they are making this a Creed franchise now. Stallone is no spring chicken so sooner or later he had to retire the role, but not sure I’m looking as forward to a Rocky franchise movie without Rocky. It’s kind of like Indiana Jones without Indy.

That’s not saying they can’t expand on Creed and maybe severing ties with Stallone while he is still alive and able to appear as Rocky is the right move to move on, but it feels like the project will be missing something.

Then there was this nonsense from Stallone about working on a Rocky prequel movie last year, see: Rocky in an immigration issue movie? Please, no. Believe that idea has morphed into a TV series on one of the streaming channels now, but not sure if it’s been picked up or not. Hmm, will have to wait and see. Probably one of those TV series I watch the first episode and decide whether to stay or bail.

Will have to wait and see what Creed 3 delivers. Sounds like they don’t have a script fully fleshed out yet, so this is all just guesswork at the moment. Maybe Stallone swoops in at the studio’s request and appears one more time. I mean if they are going to do a story with Mr. T and/or Clubber Lang, how can Rocky not be in the story? Could be Clubber’s child, as was Drago’s in the last Creed film but neither Mr. T or Stallone around to revisit their character

All the movies I grew up with are changing, and although inevitable due to Hollywood’s dubious flirtation with sequels, it’s sad. Would be nice to see them leave alone these franchises until 50+ years or so have gone by (wait, Rocky was in the 70s, so it has been almost 50 years!)

Do you want to see a Creed sequel without Rocky (Stallone) in it? Do you think it’s the right time for Stallone to move on?