Michael B. Jordan premieres Creed III, hopes to expand ‘Creed-verse’

LONDON — Michael B. Jordan reprises his role as boxer Adonis Creed in new film Creed III and the actor-director says he hopes to expand the universe around the character in future.

Mr. Jordan makes his directorial debut with the third instalment of the movies, which first began with 2015’s Creed, a spin-off of the Rocky films starring Sylvester Stallone, and telling the tale of Adonis, the estranged son of late heavyweight champion Apollo Creed.

“It was challenging but I never felt more alive,” Mr. Jordan told Reuters of his directorial debut at the Creed III premiere in London on Wednesday.

“I had a chance to put my point of view on everything and that was really good.”

In Creed III, Adonis is enjoying his successful career when an old friend and once promising boxer, Damian, played by Jonathan Majors, comes back into his life after serving a prison sentence.

While the friendship is at first rekindled, things soon unravel when Damian insists he wants a shot in the ring.

Asked if there could be more for Creed in future, Mr. Jordan said: “Definitely. I want to do something like a live on its own, something that maybe if you didn’t see the first two films it would still be able to tell a story and make you feel full when you finished it.

“But I definitely plan on expanding the ‘Creed-verse’ moving forward … comic books to graphic novels to TV to spin-offs. There’s so many ways that you can tell a story with these rich characters and now I’m going to figure out what I’m going to do.”

One potential storyline could concern Creed’s opponent in Creed II, Viktor Drago, son of Rocky IV character boxer Ivan Drago. Viktor makes an appearance in Creed III.

“We’re working on something and I feel like this is some kind of a teaser in Creed III,” actor Florian Munteanu, who plays Viktor, told Reuters.

“This movie was really about digging into the depth of Adonis but I feel like the Drago story is still unfinished, it’s still untold so we still have something to tell there … let’s see.” — Reuters