Sylvester Stallone is revealing his displeasure at the news of Rocky spinoff Drago. Stallone starred and wrote the original 1976 Rocky, a film that went on to become the highest-grossing film of that year, the Academy Award winner for Best Picture, and a massive franchise starter. Stallone reprised his role as Rocky Balboa in 2015’s Creed, a legacy sequel that saw Stallone in a supporting role and earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the Academy Awards.
Stallone however will not return as the Italian station in the upcoming film Creed III. Recently, Stallone accused Rocky producer Irwin Winkler of withholding the film rights to the character from him, which was likely a major factor in Stallone departing the franchise he created. Shortly after, it was announced that MGM was developing a spinoff film centered on Rocky IV villain Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) and his son Viktor Drago ( Florian Munteanu) who made his big screen debut in Creed II, which Lundgren also returned in.
While many Rocky fans were excited by the announcement, Stallone was not and went on Instagram to publicly slam the spin-off film. He called out Winkler and his two sons David and Charles Winkler, who are also producers of the Creed films. Stallone, however, remains respectful to his former co-star Lundgren, even calling him a true friend. See Stallone’s full post below:
Click here to see the Instagram post.
Stallone’s criticism of Winkler’s control of the Rocky franchise comes when various film franchises from the 1970s and 1980s are now in court battles over control of the character rights. The film rights to Friday the 13th have reportedly reverted back to original screenwriter Victor Miller. The screenwriting duo of 1987’s Predator attempted to take Disney to court, however, a deal was reached and Disney moved forward with Prey, the Predator prequel which lands on Hulu on August 5.
The Winkler family’s decision to expand the Rocky franchise comes at an interesting time. MGM, the studio that has released all entries in the Rocky franchise, was recently acquired by Amazon and Rocky is likely a valuable property that the studio wants to continue. They’ve already shown that they can grow franchises successfully with Creed and they probably want multiple avenues so they aren’t reliant on one star. They also recently delayed the release of Creed III which will now open in March 2023, likely to cash in on star Jonathan Major’s appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania the month before showing they have big plans for the series. How fast Drago will go into production remains to be seen, as does whether or not Stallone’s comments will have any impact on it.
Key Release Dates
Creed 3
Release Date:2023-03-03
