Michael B. Jordan may follow Creed III with an actual Rocky anime

Creed IIIThe Rocky 3rd installment, directed by Michael B. Jordan, was released to spectacular reviews earlier in March. The film earned almost $59 million in the United States as well as over $100 million worldwide, which is higher than any Rocky-related movie.

This success is not going unnoticed. Deadline reported on Thursday that Amazon, which recently acquired MGM, the company behind the Creed series, is reportedly in talks with Jordan about the possibility of expanding the universe of Rocky/Creed with other related projects, including — and predictably — an anime series.

Those familiar with Jordan’s career will note that this is not the first time that the actor-director has been involved in an animated series. Between 2019 and 2021, Jordan was the executive producer for sci-fi mecha. He also acted as a voice actor. Gen:Lock. He’s also provided vocal and motion-capture performances for the animated sci-fi anthology series Love, Death & Robots.

The future of the RCEU (or ‘Rocky-Creed Extended Universe’) doesn’t just stop with Adonis Creed, however. The report suggests a project centered around Adonis’ daughter Amara, played by deaf actress Mila Davis-Kent, is just one idea emerging from quick development. And as was announced in July 2022, a spinoff movie based on Rocky Balboa’s former Russian nemesis Ivan Drago is also in the works at MGM, with a script written by Robert Lawton (Sex & Sushi, Crave). While one can imagine a Drago offshoot being reworked into a series (à la 2018’s Cobra KaiDeadline reports that although the script is not yet commissioned, Deadline still hopes to see the movie come out of the project.

All the talk of Creed’s franchise expansion has led to the obvious question of whether Sylvester Stallone, former star of Rocky, will continue in the series. Variety published a March 3 report that Stallone decided not to participate in the series. Creed III — the first time in nine films and 47 years he has not appeared in a Rocky-related project — due to his objections to the film’s creative direction and his ongoing acrimonious relationship with the franchise’ longtime producer Irwin Winkler.

Be that as it may, at the very least we can hold out hope for the possibility of seeing Adonis Creed shadow-clone-jutsu-boxing his way onto screens sometime in the near-future.