Even though he created the franchise, secured three Academy Award nominations for his efforts, headlined six of the nine installments to date, directed two of them, and acted as the number one driving force behind cumulative box office takings well north of a billion dollars, Sylvester Stallone has never owned the rights to Rocky.
Recommended VideosInstead, producer Irwin Winkler oversees the long-running property, which has seen Stallone cast out into the cold. Despite returning for Creed and its sequel, the Italian Stallion was nowhere to be found in the most recent chapter, leading many to voice their disappointment at star and director Michael B. Jordan opting to move forward without the beating heart of the entire universe.
The veteran action icon has voiced his disappointment on several occasions already, so you can only imagine how he’s feeling after the news broke that Amazon and MGM has opted to hand the keys to the Rocky kingdom over to Jordan, with the actor and producer developing an expanded universe that’s set to include additional feature films, spinoffs, a potential live-action TV series, and even an anime.
these movies are an adaptation to the rocky movies sylvester stallone wrote so to write him out the whole 3rd creed movie without even a mention after building a relationship between rocky & donnie in the first two is CRAZY
— ⊰ (@caaaassssidy) March 10, 2023Sylvester Stallone after bashing Creed 3 only for it to be the most successful in the franchise and creating multiple spin offs https://t.co/B5Fndt3663 pic.twitter.com/zEY26z9WVQ
— Radio Graffiti (@RadioGraffitiYT) March 10, 2023To see Michael B. Jordan be the new face of the franchise, and eventually become the head of future projects shows how far he's come. I hope he can sort out the rights issues so Stallone can get back involved with everything they're planning. https://t.co/WLlm0O6nAI
— Ryan Creed-Tero (@ryan_reflects) March 10, 2023Stallone said he's open to work with MBJ on anything Rocky/Creed related, he just doesn't want to deal with Irwin Winkler anymore after the rights dispute blew up.
— Edward L. Smith |#FullyVaxxed & #AllElite| 🐝🍮 (@EdSmith313) March 9, 2023I love Rocky, y'all know that.
But this kind of feels a bit ick to me if they're doing this all without Stallone.
The anime sounds cool though and I will be seated for Creed IV and V. https://t.co/HCyBgKRmQe
— Nate Richard (@NateKnowsMovies) March 9, 2023seems kinda fucked to call this the creed verse when Stallone created it originally and it comes from Rocky
— Nick M (@teh_maharaj) March 9, 2023It was confirmed a while back that talks were being held over Florian Munteanu’s Viktor Drago getting his own standalone film, but it’s a crying shame that Stallone has been cut out entirely. After all, he was the one who put pen to paper back in the mid-1970s and launched the boxing phenomenon to award-winning heights, but it looks as though his association with the brand is over as Jordan takes over as the new figurehead.
Maybe he can return in a cameo capacity, but Rocky carrying on without Sly involved in any capacity is going to sting for a lot of folks, not least of all Sly himself.
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