Yes, there is a ‘Creed IV’ in the works. No, it probably won’t have anything to do with Rocky.
Following the hit 'Creed III,' producer Irwin Winkler has confirmed a fourth film in the 'Creed' franchise. The film, directed by and starring Michael B. Jordan, goes into pre-production next year.
Adonis is back! The son of Rocky Balboa’s arch nemesis, Apollo Creed, is all set to return to our screens.
After Creed III raked in a worldwide $275.3 million in 2023, the franchise, which picks up the story where the Rocky franchise left it, will be back with Creed IV, producer Irwin Winkler said at a Deadline event in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Winkler, who produced all the Rocky and Creed films, also confirmed that Michael B. Jordan will be back in the director’s chair for Creed IV. The actor, who will also star in the new film, made his directorial debut with Creed III.
“Michael and the creative team had the beautiful vision from the start to create a wholly new and different experience for this movie,” Winker said at the Deadline event. “We also really examined what kind of movie we were making. And a lot of that, those early days with Michael, were spent crafting how we were looking at the Damian character, which is why I think everyone responded to the depth, not only on the page, but also on the screen.”
Creed III had the biggest box office opening of any film from the Rocky universe, Screen Rant reported.
For Creed IV, Winkler said the team has “a really good story [and] a really good plot.” After being delayed by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, the film will go into preproduction in about a year.
While Creed III saw the introduction of characters like Damian (Jonathan Majors) and starred Tessa Thompson and Phylicia Rashad, the OG Rocky Sylvester Stallone’s absence was conspicuous. He was, however, credited as a producer. Adonis’ relationship with his mentor, Rocky, which had formed a significant chunk of the earlier Creed films, was absent from Creed III.
Stallone announced in 2021 that he would not be a part of Creed III, and then in July 2022, the Rocky superstar took to Instagram to voice his discontent over how Winkler had handled the franchise. He claimed that he had retained very little ownership over the iconic character. The posts have since been deleted.
“But the truth is,” Stephen Silver wrote for The Inquirer when the Creed III trailer dropped, “especially here in Philadelphia, Rocky will never die.”
Thankfully, for those of us who can’t get enough of Stallone or his Rocky years, there’s the Netflix documentary Sly, where the actor speaks at length about how the Rocky films came about.