I saw someone post the Creed 3 trailer in another thread but I wanna mention it here because I always have a lot of thoughts about the Rocky franchise, it's one of my pop culture obsessions..
So... Creed 2 sucked, ok? Because Rocky 4 (the one with the Russian) sucked. It's become this nostalgia touchpoint but that is the bad kind of nostalgia, the kind that celebrates something old just because it's old not because it's good in any way. Rocky 4 is a garbage movie but Stallone seems to feel that the story and character of Drago hasn't been given its due or whatever (possibly colored by the fact that Dolph Lundgren who played him is apparently a super nice and cool guy). So Creed 2 has Drago and his son and it's pretty dumb.
But if you like the formula and Michael B. Jordan as much as I do it's still fun. Wereas first Creed was actually pretty decent.
So there were rumors that Creed 3 would also bring in a Rocky sequel villain son, this time the son of Clubber Lang, the character played by Mr. T in Rock 3.
*sigh*
Ok, Rocky 3- now this is proper nostalgia because Rocky 3 is an incredibly mixed film. It's not a good film at all- it completely loses everything that gave the first 2 Rocky movies their charm- the whole underdog, working class, grimy vibe- in favor of BIG 80s FRANCHISE nonsense. But it's good nostalgia because it's entertaining as hell, has a killer soundtrack including the Eye of the Tiger song, and Mr T's performance is captivating. It's also incredibly racially problematic, which is delightful for nostalgia farming.
But the idea of having another Rocky son was just lame, especially as it turns out Stallone is done appearing in these (which I respect). So I'm glad that they ended up NOT doing that.
However- the trailer reveals it's the same plot, lol. Almost... I mean, in Rock 3, Lang and Rocky were strangers while in Creed 3 they were friends once. But the hungry challenger with a chip on his shoulder out to get the softened comfortable champion is exactly what both movies are about.
Either way, Creed 3 is also yet another movie with Jonathan Majors, who seems to be having quite a moment as I'm seeing him in like everything these days. I don't mind, he is a very watcheable actor. And damn did he get jacked for this flick.
So basically we're getting Rocky 3 but by having black characters in all the principle roles we're removing the very hilarious and weird racial subtext- or, text, hahah- of the 80s version.