Jordan steps into directing ring with ‘Creed III’
Star taking ‘Rocky’ franchise in more topical direction
The violent grudge match is over. Adonis Creed, son of former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, has defeated Viktor Drago, the son of the Russian boxer Ivan Drago — who killed Apollo in the ring almost 40 years ago. Rocky Balboa, who trained Creed for the bout, regards his fighter with pride and admiration, reaching for a fist-glove bump. As the retired “Italian Stallion” assures the offspring of his former rival in this climactic moment from “Creed II,” the eighth installment in the venerable “Rocky” franchise, “It’s your time.”
Michael B. Jordan understands the sentiment.
Since breaking through in the fact-based “Fruitvale Station” a decade ago, playing a young Bay Area man who has a deadly encounter with transit police, his meteoric rise has paved the way for a gallery of acclaimed performances in projects such as “Black Panther,” “Without Remorse,” “Just Mercy” and the “Creed” films.
With “Creed III,” the latest chapter in the saga, the phrase takes on a whole new meaning: The film represents the most important — and riskiest — venture of Jordan’s career, seizing ownership of Stallone’s creation, the most successful sports franchise in film history, and injecting it with themes of personal and cultural significance absent from other “Rocky” films.
In addition to reprising his muscular character Creed, Jordan is also making his directorial debut. The setting has moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, and the presentation is epic: The
brutal fight sequences were filmed with IMAX cameras to fulfill Jordan’s mission of putting the viewer “right in the middle of the battle.” Creed’s nemesis this time around is played by Jonathan Majors.
Jordan recognized he has got some big gloves to fill, taking charge without the regular presence of Stallone or his frequent collaborator Ryan Coogler, the director of “Fruitvale Station,” “Black Panther” and “Creed.”
But he made it clear he had no choice. He was driven to follow his artistic instincts in taking the “Rocky” franchise in a new and more topical direction, aware that the challenges would be formidable.
“There’s nothing anyone could have told me to prepare me for what I was getting ready to do,” Jordan said. “People have tried, and I have listened, and there still is no comparison
to what my wildest challenges were. But I gotta take my swings.”
“Creed III” picks up several years after the conclusion of “Creed II,” with Creed in retirement and enjoying life with his musician wife, Bianca (Tessa Thompson), and their young daughter, Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). Their calm is upended when Creed’s childhood buddy and aspiring boxer Damian “Dame” Anderson (Majors) reappears after an 18-year prison stint for a violent incident that involved Creed.
Dame’s menacing agenda puts the former friends on a collision course that forces Creed out of retirement and back into the ring for a brutal showdown.
Key to Jordan’s vision was reflecting the parallels between Creed’s life and his own: “My personal life and this character have been interlinked for the last
nine years. It’s super weird to play a character going through the same things I’m going through. Yes, the franchise has been one way. But this isn’t ‘Rocky.’ This is ‘Creed.’ Their experiences are going to be totally different. They look different. I live in reality.”
Though he respected the “Rocky” formula, Jordan wanted to mesh the noisier action with more intimate examinations of Black masculinity and its toxic potential, childhood trauma and the challenges — and power — of forgiveness.
“The only way to tell that story was, first of all, make it feel like an origin story, a sequel and part of the trilogy all in one,” said Jordan. “I need to honor the invisible contract I’ve made with my audience, which is what they expect from these Rocky-Creed films, but also bring my twist and spin on it. We are showing
what is truthful to Adonis as a Black man living in America.”
And he’s not finished. He is already thinking about creating a “Creed-verse”: “You will see more of Creed in various different forms. The intellectual property is so rich. And I’m of the generation that has the hunger, the vision and the drive to get it done.”
Stallone, who co-wrote “Creed II” and is listed as a producer on “Creed III,” has been a vocal critic of “Rocky” producer Irwin Winkler. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Stallone called his absence from the film “a regretful situation”: “It was taken in a direction that is quite different than I would’ve taken it. It’s a different philosophy — Irwin Winkler’s and Michael B. Jordan’s. I wish them well, but I’m much more of a sentimentalist. I like my heroes getting beat up, but I just don’t want them going into that dark space. I just feel people have enough darkness.”
Asked about Stallone’s gripes, Jordan was diplomatic.
“There’s a lot of things in this business that have nothing to do with you,” he said. “This franchise was started before I was even born. Let’s just start right there. Then there’s the DNA of the world Sly has built. The underdog spirit which has always been there.”
He paused: “We’re in a different age. I’ve got a following that love Creed for who he is. Some of these people don’t even know who Rocky is. They’ve never seen the ‘Rocky’ movies. But they’ve seen ‘Creed.’
“My job is to focus on the work, the story, the character, all these things that are in play, and not take any of this other stuff personally. There’s nothing but love and opportunity. If and when Stallone wants to be a part of this, publicly or privately, I’ll always be here with open arms and a warm smile, like it’s always been.”
Co-star Majors, in a separate interview, called Jordan “one of the last movie stars. He’s a survivalist. I have such great admiration for him. We’re best friends. And he knows the ‘Creed’ world better than anyone else in the world.”
Thompson was also impressed by Jordan’s handing of his directing duties: “To be honest, it didn’t feel all that different from before. He still felt very much like my co-star.”
So what’s next for Jordan after “Creed III”?
“I need to recalibrate,” he said. “I’ve poured everything I’ve had creatively into this. I kind of feel like I need to fill that bucket up again, travel a little, see some things, interact with some people. Live a little, so I can have more things to say.”