The violent grudge match is over. Adonis Creed, son of former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed, has defeated Viktor Drago, the son of the Russian boxer Ivan Drago – who killed Apollo in the ring almost 40 years ago.
Rocky Balboa, who trained Creed for the bout, regards his fighter with pride and admiration, reaching for a fist-glove bump. As the retired “Italian Stallion” assures the offspring of his former rival in this climactic moment from Creed II, the eighth instalment in the venerable Rocky franchise: “It’s your time.”
Michael B. Jordan understands the sentiment.
Since breaking through in the fact-based Fruitvale Station a decade ago, playing a young man who has a deadly encounter with police, his meteoric rise has paved the way for a gallery of acclaimed performances in projects such as Black Panther, Without Remorse, Just Mercy and the Creed films. On March 1, the actor was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
With Creed III, the latest chapter in the saga, the phrase takes on a whole new meaning: the film represents the most important – and riskiest – venture of Jordan’s career, taking the reins of Sylvester Stallone’s creation, the most successful sports franchise in film history, and injecting it with themes of personal and cultural significance absent from other Rocky films.In addition to reprising his muscular character, Jordan is also making his directorial debut. The setting has moved from Philadelphia to Los Angeles, and the presentation is epic: the brutal fight sequences were filmed with IMAX cameras – known for delivering impressive detail and quality – to fulfil Jordan’s mission of putting the viewer “right in the middle of the battle”.
Creed’s nemesis this time around is played by the red-hot Jonathan Majors, who is being swept up in his own “it’s your time” buzz.Jordan recognises he’s got some big gloves to fill, taking charge without the regular presence of Stallone or his frequent collaborator Ryan Coogler, the director of Fruitvale Station, Black Panther and Creed.But he made it clear he had no choice. He was driven to follow his artistic instincts in taking the Rocky franchise in a new and more topical direction, aware that the challenges would be formidable.
“There’s nothing anyone could have told me to prepare me for what I was getting ready to do,” Jordan says. “People have tried and I have listened, and there still is no comparison to what my wildest challenges were. But I gotta take my swings.”
He knows his move to directing will be scrutinised: “As a person who’s always been compared to someone else, who has been opinionated on and picked apart as far as being in front of the camera my entire career – well, I’m used to that.
“But it’s never been on this scale, this level. And never before have I had this personal connection to what I’m doing.
“But there’s a lot of pride and excitement with this opportunity to be seen like I’ve never been seen before. That’s pretty cool.”
Key to Jordan’s vision was reflecting the parallels between Creed’s life and his own: “My personal life and this character have been interlinked for the last nine years. It’s super weird to play a character going through the same things I’m going through.
“Yes, the franchise has been one way. But this isn’t Rocky. This is Creed. Their experiences are going to be totally different. They look different. I live in reality.”
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Though he respected the Rocky formula, Jordan wanted to mesh the noisier action with more intimate examinations of black masculinity and its toxic potential, childhood trauma and the challenges – and power – of forgiveness.
“The only way to tell that story was, first of all, make it feel like an origin story, a sequel and part of the trilogy all in one,” Jordan says. “I need to honour the invisible contract I’ve made with my audience, which is what they expect from these Rocky-Creed films, but also bring my twist and spin on it.
“We are showing what is truthful to Adonis as a black man living in America.”
And he’s not finished. He is already thinking about creating a “Creed-verse”.
“You will see more of Creed in various different forms. The intellectual property is so rich. And I’m of the generation that has the hunger, the vision and the drive to get it done.”
So what are his plans after Creed III?
“I need to recalibrate,” Jordan says. “I’ve poured everything I’ve had creatively into this. I kind of feel like I need to fill that bucket up again, travel a little, see some things, interact with some people. Live a little, so I can have more things to say.”
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