Much like the title hero himself, the Rocky franchise has got back up off the canvas on more than one occasion to make an unexpected yet remarkable return to form. The first installment was a low budget independent drama that scooped Best Picture and Best Director at the Academy Awards, before quickly being reinvented as a string of glossy sports blockbusters rife with 1980s excess.
That was hardly a bad thing, though, with Rocky IV in particular a hugely entertaining slice of cheese that remains massively popular to this day, and Sylvester Stallone is currently hard at work on a Director’s Cut. The following installment may have brought the main saga to an underwhelming conclusion before Rocky Balboa undid the damage, but Creed ensured that the series came roaring back to the forefront of the public consciousness.
Ryan Coogler’s acclaimed drama returned to basics, this time with Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis in the spotlight and Stallone became just the fifth actor in history to receive two Academy Award nominations for playing the same character. And following Creed II, the story is set to continue in some fashion, with Jordan heavily rumored to make his directorial debut on Donnie’s third outing.
However, Stallone hasn’t given up on the Italian Stallion just yet, and insider Daniel Richtman now claims that a new Rocky movie is in development. Of course, this is fairly common knowledge after the actor announced in May 2019 that the project was in the works, and it would exist semi-independently of Creed III, but the tipster confirms that it’s now in active development with the Hollywood icon set to produce, pen the script and star in the pic.
Last year, Stallone revealed that what he described as an epilogue to the Rocky story was still very much on the table, with the legendary fighter befriending a young man stuck in the United States illegally before taking him under his wing. Presumably, the Coronavirus pandemic has slowed everything down, but the actor is hardly known for quietly retiring his most famous characters and it seems that the next chapter in the franchise is slowly starting to come together now.
