Sylvester Stallone is Not in Creed 3 Because of “The Most Hated Producer in Hollywood”
If there were to be a Mount Rushmore of Hollywood action icons, Sylvester Stallone’s face would certainly be up there. Stallone is an actor and entertainer known for his charismatic screen presence. Along with that, he has many legendary films to his name. One such is the iconic Rocky franchise, in which Stallone was the lead actor and writer. The film and its sequels went on to make an insane amount of money and won critical acclaim and popularity worldwide. However, as is often said, ‘All good things must come to an end’; Stallone’s beloved franchise parted ways with him. There is an intriguing and fascinating backstory to this, which also explains his absence from the recently released Creed 3.
The Heartbreaking Reason Behind Sylvester Stallone’s Absence in Creed 3
There is no doubt that Sylvester Stallone is one of the best actors in the cinematic world. One after the other, he has delivered so many iconic roles for which he will always be remembered. Recently, ahead of the release of the movie Creed 3, millions of the actor’s fans started talking about his absence from the titular film.
He played the most inspiring character, Rocky Balboa, in the Rocky universe. The Rambo movie actor was first featured in the original film as Adonis’s trainer, and after the movie received a positive response and was a major hit, his role in the following part started to reduce in the second film, which came out in 2018, and now the third installment has completely forgotten the character, and his fans are not happy at all. Creed 3 is mainly focusing on another fictional character, Adonis Donnie Creed, and his past that has returned to haunt him.
While the Rocky franchise is mostly famous because Sylvester Stallone is the face of this celebrated universe, unfortunately, fans have to watch Creed 3 without his appearance in the film. The actor was quite honest about his lack of involvement in the third installment; he told the media about his absence from the film,
“That’s a regretful situation because I know what it could have been. It was taken in a direction that is quite different from the one I would’ve taken it. It’s a different philosophy — Irwin Winkler’s and Michael B. Jordan’s. I wish them well, but I’m much more of a sentimentalist. I like my heroes getting beat up, but I just don’t want them going into that dark space. I just feel people have enough darkness.”
In 1976, Sylvester Stallone was going through some financial difficulties, due to which he was forced to sell the rights to his own Rocky franchise to Irwin Winkler. After all these years, this sports franchise has successfully established itself as one of the most popular in the history of cinema.
Sylvester Stallone’s Bitter Feud with Hollywood Producer Irwin Winkler
The Expendables movie actor and Irwin Winkler have been involved in a decade-long feud, which both of them have silently protested, and this is one of the major reasons why Stallone did not want to appear in Creed 3. Their feud dates back to 1976 when the actor sold the rights to his Rocky franchise. Obviously, he was not aware of how big his franchise was going to be because he was going through a financial crisis at the time, and so he gave it up to Winkler. The actor goes on to explain his experience with Rocky rights in his 2019 interview with Variety. He told the outlet,
“I have zero ownership of Rocky’. Every word, every syllable, and every grammatical error was all my fault. It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about? I was furious.”
The dispute between the two erupted again in 2022. The Creed actor took to Instagram and shared a picture of Winkler as a knife-tongued serpent. Along with the image, he wrote a cryptic caption as follows:
“A very flattering portrait of the great ‘Rocky’/’Creed’ producer, Irwin Winkler, from one of the country’s greatest. After Irwin controlling ‘Rocky’ for over 47 years, and now ‘Creed,’ I really would like to have at least a little of what’s left of my rights back before passing them on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN — I believe that would be a fair gesture from this 93-year-old gentleman.”
Creed 3 is now playing in theaters worldwide.
Source: NY Post
