Photo: Warner Bros. Picture
After 42 years, eight movies, and many pairs of American flag shorts later, Rocky Balboa is finally hanging up his boxing gloves. Sylvester Stallone posted a video to Instagram announcing the character’s retirement.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bquk06OharC/
In the video, Stallone implies that the movies will continue, but with Michael B. Jordan’s character (Adonis Johnson Creed, Apollo Creed’s son) taking the lead. Stallone says, “As I step back, as my story has been told, there’s a whole new world that’s gonna be opening up for the audience, for this generation.” The focus of the Rocky franchise shifted with the past two movies—2015’s Creed and this year’s Creed II, but now Stallone is officially passing the torch to Jordan.
Stallone served as writer or co-writer on every Rocky film with the exception of Creed, which was written by Ryan Coogler and Aaron Covington. Stallone also directed four of the movies himself and received Academy Award nominations for best actor and best supporting actor along the way.
Creed II debuted on Nov. 21 and is currently in theaters.
h/t IGN
