Creed II

Creed II is a 2018 American sports drama directed by Steven Caple Jr., with a script co-written by Juel Taylor and Sylvester Stallone. It follows up the 2015 film *Creed* and serves as the eighth movie in the *Rocky* series. The cast includes Michael B. Jordan, Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Wood Harris, Florian Munteanu, Phylicia Rashad, and Dolph Lundgren. In the story, Adonis Creed (Jordan) continues training under Rocky Balboa (Stallone) and must fight Viktor Drago (Munteanu), the son of Ivan Drago (Lundgren)—the boxer who killed Adonis’s father, Apollo Creed, thirty-three years earlier. Plans for a sequel were announced in January 2016, but production stalled because *Creed* director Ryan Coogler and Jordan were busy with *Black Panther* (2018). Stallone initially took over as director and finished the screenplay by July 2017, but by December he was replaced by Caple, with Coogler staying on as an executive producer. The rest of the cast, including Thompson, Rashad, and Lundgren, was confirmed by March 2018. Filming took place from March to June, mostly on location in Philadelphia. The movie premiered on November 14, 2018, at New York City’s Lincoln Center and was released in the U.S. by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on November 21. Critics gave it generally positive reviews, praising the performances of Stallone, Jordan, and Lundgren, the character development, and Caple’s direction, though they noted the plot was predictable. It earned $214.2 million worldwide. Stallone later stated on Instagram that this was his final appearance as Rocky Balboa, retiring the character. It was also the only *Rocky* film where he shared writing credit, having written the first six films alone, and the last *Rocky* movie he wrote. A sequel, *Creed III*, directed by Jordan in his directorial debut, came out on March 3, 2023. In 2018, three years after losing to “Pretty” Ricky Conlan, Adonis “Donnie” Creed has won six straight fights—including a victory over Danny “Stuntman” Wheeler for the WBC World Heavyweight Championship—and reclaimed his 1967 Ford Mustang, which he had lost to Wheeler in a bet. Now a global star, he proposes to his girlfriend Bianca Taylor, and she accepts. Bianca wants to start fresh in Los Angeles, but Adonis is hesitant to leave Philadelphia and Rocky.