The unexpected success of Creed suckerpunched Warner Bros. with a decent box office return and plenty of critical acclaim. Throw in Sylvester Stallone’s recent Golden Globes along with the movie’s clutch of Oscar nominations and it’s no surprise that the studio is pushing forward with its sequel; Creed 2 already holds a place on the calendar for November 2017.
Other than its scheduled opening, there are little hard facts known about the movie. Michael B. Jordan is reprising his role as the titular Adonis Creed and Stallone will most likely be back to guide him towards glory once more. With the latter dropping hints that the sequel may hop back-and-forth in time, allowing for Carl Weathers to return as Apollo Creed, Jordan seems to think there’s a more pressing issue the sequel should address.
Here’s what he told the folks at IGN:
“I think The Godfather take is super ambitious and awesome. But when you’re dealing with someone like [director] Ryan [Coogler] I think honestly he could pull off anything. So that’s pretty cool. And honestly in Creed 1 we didn’t have a real villain I don’t think, so it would be kind of cool to have that antagonist character for Adonis to go up to and have some real animosity towards. That would be pretty cool.”
He makes a fair point: the movie didn’t dedicate much development time to his final opponent British fighter Ricky Conlan. However, the most intriguing part of the article is the mention of director Ryan Coogler, whose commitment to Marvel’s Black Panther is thought to be in direct conflict with Creed 2. While his departure from the Creed series has yet to be confirmed, the fact that he goes on to discuss the future of the saga with IGN is rather telling indeed.
“Having gone through the process and developed these character, delved into this world, worked with these actors, I would love the opportunity to do something like that again and revisit these characters again. As long as it’s in a story that works and is as meaningful frankly to me as this one was.”
Is this a confirmation that Coogler is back? Time will tell.