A new ‘Creed’ trailer is out. But there is no Rocky!

The new trailer for Creed III, which debuted Oct. 18, has a lot to offer: Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis is back in the ring, there’s a fascinating new antagonist, a slew of familiar faces like Tessa Thompson and Phylicia Rashad, and the promise of witnessing Jordan’s directorial debut.

But there’s one notable thing it doesn’t have: Rocky Balboa.

Sylvester Stallone confirmed back in spring 2021 that he would not be back for Creed III, although he is credited as a producer. The split sounded amicable at first, but Stallone has taken to Instagram to rip Irwin Winkler, the producer of all Rocky films , making clear that Stallone has retained very little ownership of the iconic character. The posts have now been deleted.

In that new trailer, Rocky is referenced only briefly, it is clear that Adonis’ relationship with and mentorship by Rocky is not a key theme in Creed III, as it was in the first two. In an online press conference held on Oct. 17 with Jordan, Stallone was not mentioned.

Does a movie in the Rocky franchise, with no Rocky in it, mean the end of the line for the beloved fictional character most closely associated with Philadelphia?

The new film has Adonis reconnecting with a friend from his youth, Damian “Dame” Anderson (Jonathan Majors, of The Last Black Man in San Francisco and Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.) After spending years in incarceration, Dame is now free and wants to get in the ring with his onetime friend, Adonis. The character appears to offer a similar dynamic to what Jordan himself brought to Black Panther as Killmonger: He’s an antagonist to the hero, but one who is given a sympathetic motivation and backstory. Black Panther, like the original Creed, was directed by Ryan Coogler.

After character posters were released a day before the trailer, the look of Majors’ character kicked off much speculation and had “Clubber Lang” trending on Twitter, indicating that the character is meant to be the son of the Rocky III villain, played by Mr. T.

Released in 2015, Creed was probably the best Philadelphia movie of the century. Directed by Coogler, it combined the mythology of the Rocky series, which at that point was nearly 40 years old, with a whole new story about a whole different Philadelphia, focusing on Adonis (Jordan), a young Black fighter coming to terms with the legacy of the father (original Rocky antagonist Apollo Creed) he never knew. The film reached a crescendo with the traditional montage sequence, but ended like no other films in the series — with kids on ATVs accompanying Adonis as he ran through Kensington.

A sequel, Creed II, followed three years later, but the need to provide closure to the events of 1985′s Rocky IV proved a less-than-great storytelling hook.

Some may even argue that the greatness of the original Creed makes a compelling case that the franchise can even outlive Rocky.

Jordan, while not specifically mentioning Rocky’s absence, discussed in the press conference what he’s trying to accomplish as director of the new film.

“I had a lot to say as a young man, as a young Black man, just my life experiences and [I wondered] how I could actually share that, share a piece of myself with the world; through these characters and through this story.” He also discussed continuing to tell the story of Bianca (Tessa Thompson) slowly losing her hearing, especially as she and Adonis become parents.

The Rocky franchise, in fact, has looked finished many times in the past. The poorly-received Rocky V looked like the end, and that was in 1990. The 2006 Rocky Balboa, featuring Rocky getting back in the ring at age 60, felt even more like a finale. Creed’s great final scene, featuring Adonis helping a recovering-from-cancer Rocky walk up the Art Museum steps one more time, would have represented an absolutely perfect exit for the character.

But the truth is, especially here in Philadelphia, Rocky will never die. The Rocky video clips and music are still played at every Eagles home game. Rocky, the Musical is playing at the Walnut Street Theatre, while Stallone released both a director’s cut of Rocky IV and a making-of documentary, last year. Rocky may be exiting Creed but there is no checking out of his significance and legacy.