Rocky Balboa faced a lot of tough opponents during his career as a boxer, and unquestionably one of the most challenging was Ivan Drago. The Russian brute of few words killed Apollo Creed in the ring early into Rocky IV and nearly did the same to Rocky, but the Italian Stallion rose up and defeated Drago in the end, bringing an early end to the Soviet Union in the process (at least that's how I choose to look at it). More than 30 years later, Dolph Lundgren is set to reprise Drago for Creed 2, but the actor only decided to return because he was so pleased with the sequel's script. When asked to spill some secrets on Creed 2, Lundgren responded:
That was something Stallone suggested to me about a year ago. I wasn't sure, since it's been about 30 years. I wanted Ivan Drago to live in the past, but it turned out that the script for Creed 2 was really good. All I can tell you is Ivan is back. The Russians come back over for a challenge.
With so much time having passed since Rocky IV, I can't blame Dolph Lundgren for initially thinking that Ivan Drago shouldn't be brought back. That movie is quintessentially '80s, and while Drago worked as an antagonist back then, seeing him in a present day setting might not work well. However, from what Lundgren told Review Journal, the Creed 2 script, written by Sylvester Stallone and Cheo Hodari Coker, has found an effective way to draw him back into Rocky's world, so he won't have to keep collecting dust in the corner with Paulie's robot anymore. Maybe Drago's vocabulary has improved over the last three decades?
An official Creed 2 plot synopsis hasn't been announced yet, but the sequel will see Adonis Creed battling Ivan Drago's son, who will be played by Romanian boxer Florian Munteanu. However, given that Drago is the man who killed Adonis' father, you can bet there will be bad blood between the main protagonist and the elder Russian boxer. It remains to be seen if Adonis and Drago will actually come to blows, though Dolph Lundgren did post a video of himself getting into shape for Creed 2 last year. In any case, you can expect Adonis to work out most of his aggression through the younger Drago. While Sylvester Stallone was originally supposed to direct Creed 2 (which would have been his fifth time directing a movie in the Rocky series), the sequel will now be helmed by Steve Caple Jr.
Creed 2 doesn't have a specific release date yet, so stay tuned to CinemaBlend for that information and more updates. In the meantime, you can see Dolph Lundgren on the big screen later this year in Black Water and Aquaman, the latter of which arrives on December 21.
