‘Creed 3‘ hit the theaters, but left excited fans disappointed with the absence of Sylvester Stallone. Stallone’s Rocky Balboa became a fan favorite in ‘Creed I’ and ‘Creed II’. But his performance was deeply missed in the third installment of Creed. ‘Creed 3’ is the overall ninth installment of Rocky and the third installment of ‘Creed’, and this is the first film that did not feature Rocky Balboa.
Sylvester Stallone has played many renowned roles in the span of his career, but one of the most iconic and memorable roles was Rocky Balboa. In the previous installments, he played the role of the ‘Italian Stallion’ and reprised the same role in Micheal B. Jordan’s ‘Creed‘. Stallone also earned an Oscar nomination for the role of supporting actor in the 2015 installment. But when the iconic character of Rocky was dropped unexpectedly from ‘Creed 3’, many questions were raised amongst the fans.
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Why Sylvester Stallone Is Absent From The Third Installment Of ‘Creed’
Initially, the 2015 ‘Creed’ movie focused on the relationship between Adonis (Micheal’s character) and Rocky (Stallone’s character). The fans loved the dynamic duo of the stars and were eager to see more of them together. Later ‘Creed II’ sidelined Rocky and focused on Adnois alone. But with the release of the third installment, Micheal Jordon was only interested in moving ahead and focusing alone on the development of Adonis’ character. Hence, it would have made sense to drop the Oscar nominee from the role of Rocky.
Not only Micheal Jordan’s wish to focus on Adonis’ character, but it was also Sylvester Stallone who had his own reason to quit the role of decade-long Rocky. One of the reasons behind Stallone’s exit was because of the creative differences and the way ‘Creed III’s’ storyline was shaped. He felt that the script of going into a dark place since he likes his hero getting punched in the face, but never to slip into darkness. Also, his long-time feud with the franchise’s producer Irwin Winkler seems to have never reached any sort of conclusion.
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What Was The Feud Between Sylvester Stallone And Irwin Winkler?
The feud between Sylvester Stallone and Creed’s Irwin Winkler has been making the headlines for a long time and it again reignited in 2022. The long-time feud was one of the reasons why Stallone wanted to drop the role of Rocky and there might be a possibility as he will never play the role ever again.
The feud over the rights to the Rocky franchise, which Irwin Winkler owned since the Oscar-winning 1976 ‘Rocky’. Stallone naively sold the rights to Winkler many years ago when he was just a struggling actor and was clearly unaware of the franchise potential and fame of the character. In an interview with SiriusXM, Stallone said, “it was a rough emotional ride cutting ties with the Rocky franchise for Creed III, but you can’t makes peace with someone who’s been so, so nefarious, in my opinion.” Hence the journey of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky ends here.
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