‘Creed III’ director Michael B. Jordan explains the secret to crafting a great training montage

On the heels of the considerable buzz generated by the first trailer for Creed III, first-time director and star Michael B. Jordan is revealing his secret for crafting a staple of the Rocky franchise: The all-important montage.

During a Creed III press conference attended by We Got This Covered, the moderator for the event asked Jordan if he learned anything about “the art of the training montage” now that he’s directed some. Somewhat unsurprisingly, Jordan revealed in his response that it involves a lot of moments in front of the speed bag, among other things:

“The art of the training montage! Get any and everything you can. Every push-up, every speed bag moment. But seriously, I think from the montage, I think: What are the stakes? How was your character, you know, leaving the montage better than he was when he first started? I think that’s a good one to stick to.”

With Jordan signaling the importance of honing in on character motivation even while filming something as straightforward as a montage, it gives us hope the actor-turned-director will helm a worthy follow-up to the already-excellent duology of films that came before. What’s more, the introduction of Jonathan Majors’ Damian as a character with a link to Adonis Creed’s troubled past is shaping up to be a compelling rivalry in the ring, too.

In addition, Tessa Thompson’s reprisal as Bianca and seeing how her relationship with Adonis has evolved, now that they share a child, gives us even more reason to get excited about the upcoming sports drama.

With 2015’s Creed, director Ryan Coogler brought the world a wonderful reinvigoration of the Rocky franchise that doubled as a complete reboot in which Jordan portrayed the estranged son of the late Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers). Director Steven Caple Jr. continued the legacy of the franchise with Creed II in 2018, which brought with it a compelling antagonist in Florian Munteanu’s Viktor Drago. By the looks of the trailer, we’re hopeful Jordan at the helm as director for the threequel can capture lightning in a bottle once again.

Creed III hits theaters on March 3, 2023.