Sylvester Stallone's "Rocky" films have become iconic boxing films, and Stallone's character Rocky Balboa has even become quite an inspirational figure particularly for Italians.
With the spin-off film "Creed" starring Michael B. Jordan as Adonis Creed, son of the late boxer Apollo Creed who was the good friend of Rocky himself, director Ryan Cogler changed the formula and presented moviegoers with a Black protagonist.
He discussed this change during an interview with Screen Rant. "I think it's something that kind of came with the territory of me being a black filmmaker, Mike being a black actor, us choosing to tell Creed's story," he said. "That flip kinda came with the territory of it. I thought we were definitely conscious of it, I would say. And for me as a filmmaker, it was very interesting, because I realized in doing research, researching boxing movies and how often they get made, it's very rare to find... I couldn't really find a story of a fictional boxer who was black, even though most American boxers tend to be black or Hispanic. So it was a void that I knew was there. We were conscious of filling it and really excited about it."
The "Rocky" movies had a significant impact on Cogler's life because he grew up watching those films with his father, and they both rooted for Rocky and Apollo. Incidentally, his father's favorite movie was "Rocky 2," where Apollo lost the match.
"You've got that moment when they both go down. They cuttin' to Apollo's wife, they cutting to Adrian. For me, I wanted them both to get up at the same time. Sometimes I found myself cheering for Apollo because that was what I related to," he shared. "So I think we were definitely conscious of that."
Cogler added that the characters found in "Creed" are very relatable. He said that they actually based Adonis' character on the juvenile kids they worked with in San Francisco.
"It's something that you see. What you see in Adonis you see in a lot of those kids. So that was definitely a part of...we definitely wanted that to be a part of who he is, and this idea how he ended up in there, and what happens to him after," he said.
Cogler refused to give more details away about the film, and he revealed that this is the reason why trailers and other promotional items have been very scarce.
"I don't want to give it away, what happens in the opening of the movie. We've been purposefully holding back in showing trailer footage and stuff. We don't show that part of the film a whole lot because we want it to be a surprise to folks when they come into a boxing movie and it starts like that," he said.
