Last week, the news of a Creed movie broke Franchise Fred’s brain. I believe every franchise should continue indefinitely, no exceptions, but this is a brilliant approach beyond even my imagination. Ryan Coogler is writing a Rocky spinoff to star Michael B. Jordan as the late Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers)’ grandson, and Stallone has agreed to appear as Rocky.
Now this is a stretch, but when I was on the set of the upcoming TNT drama “Lost Angels” with the Television Critics Association, I couldn’t help asking Milo Ventimiglia about it. Ventimiglia played Rocky Jr. in Rocky Balboa, so I put it out there to see if he’d be open to showing up in Creed to lend his “dad” some support.
“I’ll tell you what, if they invited me, I’d love to be there,” Ventimiglia said. “If they didn’t, I wouldn’t be offended.”
That’s a reasonable perspective for an actor, happy to be involved, but understanding if the Creed story doesn’t really involve Rocky’s own son. As a member of the Rocky family, Ventimiglia is as excited as I am about the new approach.
“I think it’s a cool idea,” Ventimiglia said. “I think it’s a load of characters that people have been in love with for such a long time that it makes sense to do another one. To do another Rocky movie, maybe not. That was a really nice bookend to the first film, Rocky Balboa was. But to do an offshoot, Creed, that’s a great idea. Such a great idea.”
I suggested that making Rocky a supporting character is also a fascinating way to rejigger the franchise. “Exactly,” Ventimiglia agreed. “Look, Sly is an amazing actor. He’s an amazing creator. He’s a great director. Whatever capacity he’ll be in there, it all came from him.”
We’ll be back with more Creed news after we drink some raw eggs.
