{"id":31983,"date":"2025-10-26T16:18:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T20:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31983"},"modified":"2025-10-27T22:51:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T02:51:07","slug":"rocky-was-set-to-die-in-original-script-of-creed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31983","title":{"rendered":"Rocky Was Set to Die in Original Script of “Creed”"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\u00a9Courtesy of Warner Brothers.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

In an interview with GQ<\/em><\/a> published last week, Sylvester Stallone<\/a> explained he was hesitant to reprise his iconic role of Rocky Balboa in Creed<\/a> <\/strong><\/em>\u00a0because he objected to director\/co-writer Ryan Coogler<\/a>\u2019s plan to kill off the character at the end.

In the interview, Stallone was quoted as saying: \u201cI was never comfortable [with that idea]. I dodged that bullet for two years, three years. And Ryan Coogler was very persistent, kept pushing it. And we had the same agent, but I didn’t want to do it because the way he had written it, Rocky dies. He gets Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease. And I said, \u2018I have a big thing about characters like that dying. I’d much rather them get on a train going somewhere and you never see ’em again. But to die it will just bum the audience out completely.\u2019 So once we got over that, I said, \u2018Ok, we’ll give it a shot.\u2019

As a result of Stallone\u2019s objections, Coogler dropped the idea of having Rocky Balboa succumb to Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease (also known as ALS). Instead, Coogler and co-screenwriter Aaron Covington<\/a> rewrote the script to portray the boxer as a survivor of Non-Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma.<\/p>\r\n

<\/ins>\u00a0

That strategy sat well with Stallone, who said the role provided the opportunity for him to do some \u201cdramatic acting, \u2018cause I couldn\u2019t use my body. I\u2019m not fighting. So that was a good challenge. And it turned out pretty well.\u201d

For his work in Creed<\/strong><\/em>, Stallone ultimately won a Golden Globe award and a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 88th Academy Awards. The actor praised Michael B. Jordan<\/a>\u2019s performance in the film, claiming they were both \u201cpsychologically invested\u201d in the story. Jordan ultimately starred in Creed II<\/strong> <\/em>(2018) and Creed III<\/strong><\/em> (2023), and is slated for a starring role in Creed IV<\/strong><\/em>, though a release date has not yet been announced. Stallone did not appear in Creed III<\/strong><\/em>, having made his final appearance in Creed II<\/strong><\/em>, when his iconic character was seen reuniting with his estranged son and meeting his grandson for the first time.

In the GQ interview, Stallone also expressed his regret that three of his films\u2014Cobra<\/strong><\/em>, Tango & Cash<\/strong><\/em>, and Demolition Man<\/strong><\/em>\u2014never became franchises. Currently, Stallone is producing I Play Rocky<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, a film about the creation of the original movie in 1976.

Check out other articles by Edward.<\/a><\/p>\r\n<\/ins>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9Courtesy of Warner Brothers.\u00a0 In an interview with GQ published last week, Sylvester Stallone explained he was hesitant to reprise his iconic role of Rocky Balboa in Creed \u00a0because he objected to director\/co-writer Ryan Coogler\u2019s plan to kill off the character at the end. In the interview, Stallone was quoted as saying: \u201cI was never…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[28685,90,88,59,357,10834,91,358],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRocky Was Set to Die in Original Script of "Creed"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sylvester Stallone : In an interview with GQ published last week, Sylvester Stallone explained he was hesitant to reprise his iconic role of Rocky Balboa in Creed \u00a0because he objected to director\/co-writer Ryan Coogler\u2019s plan to kill off the character at the end.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31983\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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