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with few rocky movies left in him, can sylvesterstallone transfer the franchise over to new talent? you're watching beyond the trailer'sreview of creed. sylvester stallone created rocky, and in manyways the character has defined his career. both underdogs that nobody ever expected tobe champions in their field, stallone has written and starred in every single rockyfilm while directing all but the first and fifth film. overall there have been six rockyfilms, and they earned stallone his only oscar and golden globe nominations to date - forboth best actor and writer for that first film. so naturally, stallone is very sentimentalwhen it comes to rocky and has had a hard time letting the character go, along withrambo. but stallone has also proven to be
a savvy producer, and he obviously realizesthat the only thing left rocky to do at this point is to pass the mantle - and perhapsfor stallone to pass the mantle of the franchise itself as well. and why not? hollywood isfranchise crazy right now, and rocky certainly has a lot of brand recognition. but what makesthis transfer tricky, and perhaps brilliant if it pays off, is that stallone is handinghis italian stallion over to a black writer-director and actor, the fruitvale station team of ryancoogler and michael b jordan. narratively it makes sense, as creed tells the story ofthe estranged and lost son of rocky's greatest rival in the ring, apollo creed. this bringsthe story full circle in many ways, as adonis creed feels the weight of both his fatherand rocky's mantle. furthermore, an african-american
star accurately reflects boxing today. andbusiness-wise it also makes sense, as african-american moviegoers- and non-white moviegoers in general- are becoming more and more potent at the box office. but are coogler and jordan theright team to make this transition? fruitvale station made an impressive initial splash,but was forgotten by the time awards season came around. although in a lucky break forcreed, coogler now is rumored to be the frontrunner to direct black panther after selma's avaduvernay turned marvel down. speaking of marvel, jordan crashed and burned in fox's fantasticfour reboot, where the race-bending of johnny storm did not have a happy ending. on topof that, jordan and anthony mackie seem to be in some sort of race to see who put theirfoot in their mouth the furthest in the press...
so yeah while stallone, and therefore rocky,vouch for this new team, that doesn't guarantee that audiences will form the same emotionalattachment...
