Trivia / Creed (2015)

• Actor-Shared Background: In a more minor case, Ricky Conlan and his actor Tony Bellew both hail from the rough part of Liverpool and are fans of the football team Everton FC. Both Conlan and Bellew also have two kids.
• Approval of God: Carl Weathers, who played Apollo Creed, gave his strong endorsement to the movie and Michael B. Jordan’s performance. Jordan felt extremely honored.
• Billing Displacement: Andre Ward, who only makes two appearances in the movie, one of which is briefly on a television screen, is billed above Tony Bellew, who plays the main opponent.
• Breakthrough Hit: For Ryan Coogler. This was only his second movie, while his third was the billion-dollar earning Black Panther (2018).
• Career Resurrection: Not exactly, but Michael B. Jordan was lucky that this film came out so soon after Fantastic Four (2015) and thus preemptively repaired the damage that film could have done to his career.
• Cast the Expert:
  • 'Pretty' Ricky Conlon is played by real life Liverpool boxer 'Tony 'The Bomber' Bellew'.
  • Danny 'Stuntman' Wheeler is played by Oakland's Andre 'S.O.G.' Ward, one of the top pound for pound boxers in the world over the last 8 years. Additionally, Leo 'The Lion' Sporini is played by Philadelphia-born Gabriel Rosado, who has a reputation as a blood and guts warrior befitting the Philly fighter reputation, while Stitch the cutman is Jacob 'Stitch' Duran as himself, who is the most highly-regarded cutmen of his generation in both boxing and MMA. For what it's worth, Ward and Duran are locks as future Hall of Famers, so Stallone really outdid himself in casting experts. He even cast the real-life Elvis Grant as himself when talking up the Grant boxing gloves that are used in the entire movie. Stallone is truly a hardcore boxing fan.
• Creator Breakdown: Just as the film was entering pre-production, Sylvester Stallone's oldest son Sage died of a heart attack. Stallone has admitted that the loss almost sent him into a full breakdown, but Coogler was eventually able to convince him to use the film as a dedication to Sage, focusing specifically on the father-son relationships that appear in it. Although initially resistant, Stallone said at the Golden Globes that Creed won helped him cope with Sage's death and produce one of the best films of his career.
  “It took a while. I really didn’t want to do it, I swear to you. It’s just too painful. It’s rough. There is no closure. There is nothing. The wonderful thing about acting is that it’s a release. I can take some solace in that.”
• Descended Creator: The film's composer, Ludwig Göransson, also plays one of Bianca's bandmates.
• Hostility on the Set: During filming, Sylvester Stallone had to break up a fight between two other boxers.
• In Memoriam: The film is dedicated to the memory of producer Robert Chartoff, who died five months prior to the film's release and had been producer on all the Rocky films.
• The Other Darrin: Mary Anne Creed was portrayed by Sylvia Meals in Rocky II and IV; Meals passed away in 2011, and here the character is portrayed by Phylicia Rashad.
• Promoted Fanboy: Tony Bellew, the real life boxing champion who plays Pretty Boy Ricky Conlan, is a lifetime fan of the Rocky films and Sylvester Stallone.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Much like the first film and Balboa, this one heavily reflects the circumstances under which it was made, in this case Stallone finally handing the reins of the franchise he created and has nurtured for forty years over to a fresh new talent who can help it stay alive by taking it in a new direction. And just like Balboa, few people took the film seriously when it was first announced, but after being released it scored even better reviews and is now considered a fully worthy continuation of the franchise, with Adonis having the potential to carry several more films.
  • It's mentioned that Rocky and Robert have drifted apart again since the events of Rocky Balboa and Robert has now moved to Vancouver, with Rocky being heavily affected by his son's absence. In real life, Stallone's oldest son Sage, who had previously played Robert in the fifth film, died of a heart attack while Creed was in pre-production, a loss that Stallone himself struggled to cope with. The film's heavy focus on the father-son relationship Rocky develops with Donny was intended by Stallone and Coogler to be a tribute to Sage's memory.
• Separated-at-Birth Casting: Quite a few reviewers commented that Michael B. Jordan actually does look like he could be Carl Weathers's son.
• Sleeper Hit: Most people were incredulous that there would another sequel to the Rocky franchise after the successful and critically acclaimed Rocky Balboa was clearly meant to be a sendoff to the series. That it was a spin-off by a director who at that time had only one film to his credit also got fans wondering how this film would even begin to match up to its pedigree. The film was released for Thanksgiving 2015 and received universal acclaim with a 94% from Rotten Tomatoes and made $173 million out of a $40 million budget.
• Star-Making Role:
  • For Michael B. Jordan (although he was already known from Friday Night Lights, Chronicle and Fruitvale Station), who had quickly recovered from the colossal failure that his last film was.
  • Tessa Thompson's career also started to take off after her appearance here.
• Wag the Director: Very downplayed, but the script originally called for Rocky to wake Adonis up by splashing water on him, but Stallone convinced Coogler to change it to Rocky playing music and dancing, saying it was more in character for Rocky.
• What Could Have Been:
  • There were early plans to include Apollo Creed's trainer Duke in the film. Sadly, Duke's actor Tony Burton's health was failing at the time of filming and he passed away only three months after the film's release.
  • According to producer Irwin Winkler, Ryan Coogler's script ended with Rocky dying of ALS and "none of us wanted that."
  • An early draft of the script saw Adonis being Apollo’s grandson and he would’ve been the son of Apollo’s daughter.

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