Critics and fans alike have praised the Creed series for its engaging stories and incredible performances, and while it shares some familiar notes with the Rocky franchise, it has largely followed its own path. After two movies following Adonis' rise to the top of boxing, Michael B. Jordan made his directorial debut with the celebrated sequel Creed III, advancing Adonis Creed's career forward several years. While the general timeline is similar to that of the Rocky franchise, Creed IV has to take a new direction to avoid making the same mistakes of later Rocky movies.

Adonis Creed Is Already Past His Prime By The End Of Creed III

He Is A Well-Respected, But Aging Former Champion

One of the best elements of the Creed trilogy is that it provides perspective on Adonis Creed's life at completely different parts of his career; Creed covers his first professional fight, Creed II sees him ascend to the very top of the boxing world, and Creed III shows him near the end of his career. His fight and victory over his childhood friend Damian Anderson required a special Rocky-style training montage given that Adonis was essentially at the end of his career, focusing on training other fighters. The movie makes a special effort to emphasize how storied Adonis' career was.

Like Rocky in Rocky III before him, Adonis has had plenty of successful title defenses and more wealth than anyone can imagine by the events of Creed III. However, it is made very clear that he is past his prime at that point as a fighter. As a former champion, he is able to retrain his body and still manage to beat a strong but relatively undertrained fighter in Damian to regain his championship once again, which is reminiscent of the path that Rocky was on by the end of Rocky III.

Rocky Was Either Past His Prime Or Retired For Most Of The Rocky Franchise

Rocky Was No Longer At His Peak For Rocky III And Beyond

Rocky wins his first championship at the end of Rocky II, and his boxing prime is between that first title match and his fight against Clubber Lang. From there on out, Rocky is well past his prime in each of the matches he has in the franchise. Rocky is still champion at the beginning of Rocky IV, but in order to fight his match against Drago to avenge Apollo's death at the massive Russian's hands, he is forced to relinquish his championship.

Rocky is suffering from mental disabilities and retires by the time the events of Rocky V occur, and takes on a trainer role due to his financial troubles. His primary fight in Rocky V isn't even a sanctioned boxing match for a title, it's a street fight against his former protege, Tommy Gunn. The franchise turns almost cartoonish in Rocky Balboa, when a 60-year-old Rocky gets back in the ring against the much younger undefeated heavyweight world champion, and fights him to a split decision.

Rocky is past his prime for literally half of the entire Rocky franchise, making his later fights (and victories, both literal and metaphorical) seem repetitive and unbelievable. That is the main problem that the Creed franchise now needs to solve: how to keep the focus on Adonis while not repeating the same mistakes of the later Rocky movies about an aging boxer overcoming the odds.

How Creed IV Can Make Adonis’ Story Believable Better Than Rocky

Adonis Should Take On The Trainer Role Earlier Than Rocky Did

Creed IV has a tremendous opportunity to advance the franchise by making someone other than Adonis the main focus. Creed III has already explored this ground a bit, with Adonis training his protege Felix Chavez for a match against Adonis' one-time nemesis, Viktor Drago. It's an opportunity to dig into Adonis as a fighter coming to grips with the end of his fighting career to a degree that the Rocky franchise was never able to do. Given the timeline that the first three movies covered, it's really the next logical step in Adonis' career progression.

As a trainer, Adonis can take over the role that Rocky played in the critically-acclaimed Creed, especially given that the franchise already set up Adonis' potential replacement in his daughter Amara. Another time jump in Creed IV could frame Adonis as the trainer for his daughter who is a rising star in the boxing world, providing a unique opportunity to shine a spotlight on women's boxing as well. No matter what direction Creed IV takes, the writers need to ensure that the plot line of an aging boxer unexpectedly winning isn't recycled, as it was in the Rocky franchise.

Rocky

Created by

Sylvester Stallone

First Film

Rocky

Latest Film

Creed III

Films

Creed 4

Cast

Sylvester Stallone, Michael B. Jordan, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, Burgess Meredith, Tony Burton, Mr. T, Brigitte Nielsen, Dolph Lundgren, Tommy Morrison, Antonio Tarver, Tessa Thompson

Movie(s)

Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III, Rocky IV, Rocky V, Creed, Creed II, Creed III

The Rocky franchise follows boxer Rocky Balboa's rise from underdog to champion, and later, Adonis Creed's journey to honor his father, Apollo Creed. The films chronicle Rocky's several rises and falls, and both it and the Creed series deal with their titular character's internal and external struggles both in the ring and out.

Expand Collapse