Creed turned the spotlight on Adonis Creed, but thanks to Sylvester Stallone playing the aged Rocky Balboa and a number of references to boxing matches past, the spinoff felt right at home with the previous Rocky movies. Warner Bros has yet to announce when Creed 2 will get off the ground, but when, we can expect closer ties to one Rocky movie in particular. Stallone has been teasing that the sequel will be heavily inspired by 1985's Rocky IV over the last couple months, and he finally confirmed that Ivan Drago will indeed return.
Sylvester Stallone teased that Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago will come face to face again in Creed 2, so fans of Dolph Lundgren's turn as the Soviet boxer of few words should be pleased. When asked by TMZ if Drago would be coming back as a fighter or a trainer, Stallone only said the following:
I'm gonna punch him...You know I gotta hit Drago once.
Given that Rocky was dealing with cancer during Creed, it's unlikely that we'll see him and Ivan Drago back in the ring punching the hell out of each other, especially if Drago's been keeping in shape. That said, Drago did kill Apollo Creed, Adonis' father and Rocky's best friend. More than three decades have passed since that event, but if Drago still doesn't feel remotely remorseful about that, then one would imagine that Rocky wouldn't hesitate socking him in the face. You can be damn sure that Adonis also holds a grudge, but in terms of Creed 2's main event, there's been speculation that Michael B. Jordan's character might fight Drago's son. One can only hope that Drago Jr. hasn't been juicing like his dad did back in the day.
Dolph Lundgren flexed his villainous muscles recently by playing Arrow flashback villain Konstantin Kovar. Once his time on the CW DC show was done, he moved on to play Nereus in 2018's Aquaman, who, while not a villain according to director James Wan, certainly isn't a nice guy in the comics. But Lundgren has also kept a foot in protagonist territory by playing Gunner Jensen in the Expendables series. His other recent credits include Kindergarten Cop 2 and Hail, Caesar!
There aren't a lot of opportunities to bring back characters from the original Rocky series, so throwing Ivan Drago back into the mix for Creed 2 is a good way to tie back to Rocky's past while also presenting an interesting challenge for Adonis. It's a welcome update for a project that was greenlit at the start of 2016, but was delayed due to director Ryan Coogler taking on Black Panther, which also stars Michael B. Jordan.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on how Creed 2 is coming along.
