The Rocky franchise has seemingly movies on from featuring its former title character, with Creed III hitting cinemas soon without the involvement of Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa. However, the actor has shared on his Instagram account a set of notes detailing the way his Rocky 7 would have played out. Stallone also takes the opportunity to once again call out original Rocky producer Irwin Winkler, who he continues to have a personal beef with.
Before the franchise diverted attention to the spin-off Creed movies, Stallone appeared as Rocky Balboa in six movies, with the final movie being released in 2006. According to notes shown by Stallone, his notes include a number of ideas for key scenes that would have been included in his follow-up. This contains a scene where Rocky reminisces about his dead wife Adrian in the restaurant he opened in her honor in the sixth movie. The second set of notes include a scene in which Rocky finds a young fighter called Chucho the Mutt catching his attention, but whether he would have taken on the youngster with a view to being his mentor is unclear. Stallone later deleted the post, images of which were shared via Collider, but included in his comments:
"This was the beginning EXCERPTS of screenplay for ROCKY 7, sadly because certain individuals, it will never happen, but it’s something I want to share with the diehard fans. Always Keep punching. Painting by @john_rivoli. #Irwinsfaul. Part two, I know it’s confusing, but I think you get the idea. Rocky was back trying to fight for the neighborhood that made him and that he still loves."
Sylvester Stallone Says A New Rocky Movie Will Never Happen
For a while now Sylvester Stallone has aired his issues with original Rocky producer Irwin Winkler, who the actor claims has been holding the rights to Rocky “hostage,” and last year he urged Winkler to resolve the matter and give him back the rights that he believes are his. Until that happens, he has ruled out any further involvement on screen as part of the franchise. He previously said:
“No. It’s never gonna happen. It was a deal that was done unbeknownst to me by people that I thought were close to me and they basically gave away whatever rights I would have had. At the time I was so excited to be working and I didn’t understand this is a business. Who knew Rocky would go on for another 45 years? I’ve never used one [line of dialogue] from anyone else — and the irony is that I don’t own any of it. The people who have done literally nothing, control it.”
Despite Stallone’s issues, the Rocky franchise has continued to live on with Creed III set to arrive in theaters on March 3, giving Michael B. Jordan his first outing as both star and director of the Creed franchise. This time around he will be facing down a new opponent in the form of Jonathan Majors as former friend who becomes a formidable adversary in the ring.