The gloves are on! As revealed on Twitter by Michael B. Jordan, three new posters for Creed III have just entered the ring. In the red gloves we have Jordan himself as Apollo’s son Adonis Creed. In the black gloves we have our first look at Jonathan Majors as Creed’s fearsome latest opponent, Anderson Dame. And the third banner showcases the release date. If there weren’t already enough threes in this paragraph, it’s out on 3 March 2023. Pow!
Creed III is the ninth film in the Rocky franchise, and the first not to feature Sylvester Stallone in any capacity besides producer. There’s also the not-insignificant matter of it marking Jordan’s feature directorial debut.
Early scuttlebutt suggested that Creed’s adversary this time might be the son of Mr T’s Clubber Lang (from the original Rocky 3). That appears not to be the case at this point – it might be one son too many, perhaps, after Florian Munteanu’s Viktor Drago last time – and the specific story remains under wraps. But it’s pretty safe to infer that Adonis’ personal journey will continue both in the ring and out of it. Has he met his match this time?
Tessa Thompson will return as Bianca Taylor, with Phylicia Rashad as Mary Anne Creed, Wood Harris as Tony "Little Duke" Evers, and Munteanu also back as Drago Jr. Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin wrote the screenplay, with story input from original Creed director and still exec-producer Ryan Coogler, and shooting is already complete as of spring this year. Expect a drip-feed of further info between now and next March…