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While the character is unquestionably missed , it would be a mistake for Carl Weathers ' Apollo Creed to return in a futureRockymovie . Sylvester Stallone famously penned the first draft ofRockyin 3 days when he was a fight actor and writer . He was inspired to write the ultimate underdog narrative after watching a boxing mate between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner , with the latter managing to last a full fifteen rounds before being knocked out .
While producers hear to buy the handwriting from Stallone and bid it to bad name , like Robert Redford ( The Old Man & The Gun ) or James Caan , he refused to sell it without encounter the lead too . The surprisal success ofRockyled to a franchise that ’s still running over forty days later , withCreed 2being the most recent instalment . Stallone would maintain a heavy originative hand in each entry too , including writing and directing most of the sequels . The mavin look to have retired from the part , however , declare Rocky Balboa retired followingCreed 2 , with the enfranchisement now belong to Michael B. Jordan ’s Adonis Creed .
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One of the most disgraceful , define moments of theRockyfranchisecame with 1985’sRocky IV , where Rocky ’s former challenger turned best friend Apollo Creed ( Carl Weathers ) is pop in the ring by Russian pugilist Ivan Drago . Rocky ’s failure to discontinue the peer and carry through his friend would haunt him for decades to make out , particularly when he find himself training Creed ’s boy Adonis eld later . Despite the character having died in the fourth entry , Apollo continue to cast a big shadow over the series . From Rocky ’s loiter regret to Adonis having to step out from his shadow and spirt his own legend , Apollo ’s very much still a part of the franchise .
One of the tragedies of theCreedseries is that Adonis never got to meet his Fatherhood , and considering his destruction it would be hard to invent a good ground for Weathers and Jordan to share a scene . The closest devotee have come is a chronological succession at the end ofCreed 2where Adonis travel to his father ’s tomb , after defeating Viktor Drago , the Word of Ivan . That said , Ivan ’s performing artist Dolph Lundgren ( Aquaman ) revealed an early draft of the script sport the takings of Apollo Creed in ghostly variant . Unfortunately , Lundgren did n’t expand on Apollo ’s plotted role in the story or who he would have appeared to .
While Carl Weathers was doubtlessly fantastic in the part , and fan might welcome a cameo , it would be a mistake to play Apollo back . It ’s not surprising to learn it was consider , but as Lundgren himself stated , it would just feel " hokey . " TheRockyfranchise has ( mostly ) grounded itself in a realistic world , so having Apollo appear as a touch or hallucination would be out of place . He could potentially appear in a flashback , with Weathers de - aged , but this would n’t be live up to either , considering he could n’t share a scene with Jordan .
Apollo Creed ’s death had a major , weighty impact on theRockyfranchise , and the motion-picture show have never render to lessen that catastrophe . Maybe there is a way to institute Carl Weathers back that is both worked up and makes mother wit within the taradiddle , but it ’s difficult to see how it could be done . With Sylvester Stallone seemingly step aside and Adonis at long last defecate peace treaty with his father ’s legacy , its clock time for the serial to concentrate on Adonis moving forward . An Apollo cameo would take a chance being a rooter - pleasing whatsis at this stage , instead of something that really needs to happen .
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