Michael B. Jordan Got an Offer to Direct 'Creed III' If and When It Happens

A third instalment in the Creed franchise hasn't been officially announced yet, but if the movie goes ahead, producers already have their first choice of director lined up: Michael B. Jordan, who starred in the first two films as Adonis Creed. Irwin Winkler, the producer of the Creed movies as well as the original Rocky series of which they are a spinoff, revealed in his book, published this year, that he has assured Jordan he will have a shot at the director's chair.

"I promised Michael B. Jordan that he’d get his chance to direct Creed III," Winkler wrote in A Life in Movies: Stories From 50 Years in Hollywood, adding: "Last year in a conversation with our Creed star Michael B. Jordan, I offered him the opportunity to not only star in, but also to direct Creed III."

Winkler made a similar offer to Sylvester Stallone, who created the character of Rocky Balboa, following the success of 1976's Rocky, and Stallone stepped behind the camera to direct Rocky II in 1979. However, despite having leveraged that role into a wildly successful career, Stallone has since expressed his frustration with how he was never given annuity in the franchise. "I have zero ownership of Rocky," he said earlier this year. "Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault. It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, ‘Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?’ I was furious."

That said, Stallone returned to the world he created with the Creed movies, playing an older mentor figure to Jordan's Adonis, son of his old friend Apollo Creed. Creed II expanded on that mythology by bringing in Florian Munteaunu as Viktor Drago, son of villain Ivan Drago. And should Creed III get made, Stallone is keen to introduce more members of the next generation: he and Jordan have said that real-life heavyweight boxer Deontay Wilder would be perfect to cast as the son of Rocky III character Clubber Lang.

On July 23, 2019 in an interview with Variety, Sylvester Stallone said that a Rocky sequel and prequel are in development. Winkler said “We’re very high on it" and that negotiations are underway for Stallone to write and star in the feature. “We’re very anxious to make it.” Stallone also said there are "ongoing discussions" about a Rocky prequel television series, which he hopes will land on a streaming service and the series will likely follow a young Rocky Balboa as a professional boxing hopeful. Stallone said Winkler is hesitant on making the series saying that "There was some conflict there, yes. He felt in his mind that “Rocky” was primarily a feature film, and he didn't see it as being translated for cable, so there was a big bone of contention."