One of this year’s biggest success stories was Creed, the Rocky spinoff that plenty of folks were wary about until that first trailer hit. Then when the movie opened in theaters, audiences found that Ryan Coogler had crafted a tremendous standalone film all its own that recognized what came before without hinging on nostalgia for it to work—it’s as much a sequel as it is a standalone film, and as much a reboot as it is a sequel. This is how you jump-start a franchise, with a refreshing focus on character above all else.

Critics took notice, and Warner Bros. was slightly caught off guard when the film started making Top 10 lists—one imagines the film could have been a bigger Oscar player had Warner Bros. prepared a proper awards campaign. Regardless, what really matters is that Coogler made a genuinely good film, and audiences are hungry for more. So the question becomes not will there be a Creed 2, but when?

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Image via Warner Bros.

Speaking with Variety, Sylvester Stallone—who just very well might nab a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work in the film—let slip some potential story ideas for Creed 2, one of which should be of interest to fans of the Rocky franchise:

One version of the story would take place in the past, which would mean bringing back Carl Weathers to play Apollo Creed, who died in 1985’s Rocky IV. “Ryan has some ideas of going forward and backward and actually seeing Rocky and Apollo together,” Stallone revealed. “Think of The Godfather 2. That’s what he was thinking of, which was kind of ambitious.” Stallone said he’d recently bumped into Weathers, who looked like he was still in good shape. “I can’t believe I got in the ring with him,” he says. “Even if it was play fighting.”

That’s certainly one way to go with a follow-up, although Coogler—who was quite surprised to find out Stallone had let the Weathers idea slip—has also spoken with Stallone about a more linear story with Michael B. Jordan’s character that would be more along the lines of a traditional Rocky sequel:

“You’ll have him face a different opponent, which I would say is a more ferocious, big Russian,” Stallone says. “You can start to meld my experiences and then you start to bring different cultures into it. And you can see what’s happening with the Russians today in America. The complication will come with the girl’s ambition, because she’s not Adrian. She has places to go, things to see, the clock is running on her hearing.”

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Image via Warner Bros.

Given how well Creed established itself as its own standalone film, to revert back to franchise formula for the sequel would be kind of a bummer, so here’s hoping that idea simply fades away. More important, however, is the question of even whether Coogler will return to direct. He’s in negotiations with Marvel right now to helm the superhero pic Black Panther, which will take up his schedule for the next two years, so the question facing MGM will be whether to wait or move ahead without him. Stallone seems open to either option, though it sounds like he’s keen on making Creed 2 sooner rather than later:

“I know Ryan is probably going to be gone for a couple years,” Stallone says. “So there will be a quandary on: Do we work with another director and have Ryan produce, or do we wait? There’s a diminishing time acceptance of a sequel. Now they are cranking them out in a year.”

So much of Creed’s essence was in Coogler’s voice as a filmmaker, so I have doubts about a sequel matching its quality if they go with another director—unless that director is Coogler’s friend Ava DuVernay. But it’s also hard to see MGM and Warner Bros. waiting around for two years, so odds are probably more likely that we’ll see a Creed sequel happen with Coogler simply producing. What do you think folks? Where would you like to see a Creed sequel go? Do you even want a Creed sequel or do you think the movie works better as a standalone film? If Coogler doesn’t direct, who would you like to see take the helm? Sound off in the comments below.

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Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via Warner Bros.