Editor's note: The following contains spoilers for Creed III.2015’s Creed was one of the rare “legacy sequels” that managed to honor its original predecessor and launch a new protagonist in Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis. While the first film managed to tie in Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa in a compelling way, it also brought him to a satisfying conclusion in which he was able to honor his friendship with Apollo (Carl Weathers) by setting up his son as someone worthy of the family name. While the second film didn’t give Rocky as much to do as a character outside of trying to reconnect with his son, it still tied back heavily to the Rocky mythology by bringing back the character of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) from Rocky IV. There was inherent speculation on how largely Rocky’s story would be featured in the future.

Creed III takes place a few years after its predecessor, and establishes Adonis as the new heavyweight champion who is training another generation of fighters in a private gym. Stallone does not appear in the film, but there are brief moments in a trailer that signifies a deeper connection, even though those scenes didn't make the final cut. Although this might strike some fans as odd considering how significantly Stallone’s shadow lingers on the franchise, letting Creed stand on his own as the singular focus of the story was the best creative decision that Jordan could have made in his directorial debut.

RELATED: ‘Creed III’ Review: Michael B. Jordan Breathes New Life Into This Nearly Half-Century Old Franchise

A Resolved Story

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Image via MGM

In the original Creed, Stallone was given the opportunity to return to the character and add a completely new dimension to an icon that audiences had been rooting for since 1976. While the Rocky franchise had its ups and downs, Stallone was able to show him getting his last shot in the ring in the underrated 2006 sequel Rocky Balboa. It gave Rocky the last run he’d ever need fighting for himself, and leads nicely into the mentor storyline that Ryan Coogler developed for the Creed franchise.

At the beginning of Creed, Rocky is in a state of distress. He’s still healing from both the physical and emotional wounds of the past, as his close friends and colleagues from the Rocky franchise have all departed. With no one to care for him, Rocky struggles to find purpose; he’s been fighting for his entire life, and now it’s beyond the realm of possibility. His friendship with Adonis gives him a newfound purpose and goal. There’s a sense that in mentoring Adonis to victory, Rocky has finally settled into his old age and resolved his commitment to boxing altogether. Creed II shows that he doesn’t need the sport anymore, and he's found a new goal in reconnecting with his family.

An Undetermined Role

Michael B. Jordan in the ring with Sylvester Stallone behind him in Creed
Image via Warner Bros

While there’s no suggestion that Rocky and Adonis aren’t still friendly with each other, they are simply at different stages of their lives, and both live on opposite coasts now, and wouldn’t need to be interacting regularly like they used to. It wouldn’t make logical sense for Rocky to train Adonis once more; the student has now become the master, and there’s no more useful knowledge that Rocky can pass on now that Adonis has started his own gym and is mentoring new, younger fighters who need the same guidance that he needed as a young aspiring boxer.

“Legacy sequels” often struggle when they attempt to bring back familiar characters from a franchise in order to satisfy fans’ desires to see them again. While it’s nice to see old heroes take mentorship roles, there’s no purpose in bringing them back without a compelling reason to do so, especially if the story has already reached a conclusion. In the most recent Star Wars sequel trilogy, Han (Harrison Ford) and Luke (Mark Hamill) were given interesting story angles that shed more insight into their characterization in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, respectively. However, trying to once again tie them in simply because fans wanted to see them in The Rise of Skywalker was simply distracting and unneeded. It would be similarly disappointing to see Stallone show up for an obligatory appearance.

Unfortunately, Stallone himself knows the challenges of bringing back a legacy character from an iconic franchise. While 2008’s Rambo was the perfect way to bring the character he made iconic in First Blood back into the modern day for one last mission, the disastrous Rambo: Last Blood turned the beloved action hero into a caricature of himself. Not only was it disrespectful of the original franchise, but it ends Rambo’s journey on a sour note that leaves fans with a disappointing last taste of the character. Wouldn’t it be a shame for the same thing to happen to Rocky?

Adonis’ Legacy

Over the course of the Rocky series, supporting characters like Adrian (Talia Shire), Paulie (Burt Young), Mickey (Burgess Meredith), and Apollo were developed and given more critical roles in the sequels. The Creed franchise has begun to do the same thing; after their romance in the first film, Bianca (Tessa Thompson) and Adonis are married, and Creed III introduces their young daughter Amara (Mila Davis-Kent). Additionally, characters like Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) return to tie the entire Creed universe together.

The only legacy character from the Rocky franchise that appears in Creed III is Adonis’ mother, Mary Anne (Phylicia Rashad, but was originally played by Lavelle Roby in Rocky and Syliva Meals in Rocky II and IV), who sadly passes away due to illness. It was important to include her in the film as Adonis continues to wrestle with the anger he had as a child and his experience growing up without his father, and their mutual forgiveness of each other closes this element of the story on a touching note. Rocky would simply feel out of place in this world; the Creed legacy has now become more integral to the story, and it would be more fitting to see the return of characters like Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors) or Ricky Conlan (Tony Bellew) return in additional installments because they have more personal ties to Adonis’ world.

Stallone had a very admirable run within the Rocky series, and no one will ever forget the importance he had in launching the main series. Anyone disappointed to not see Stallone in Creed III should instead look to the exciting, innovative things he’s been doing recently creating new characters in The Suicide Squad and Tulsa King. Stallone’s filmography is certainly not over, but it’s best if he left Rocky in the past.