Michael B. Jordan’s rise to fame may have not been down to the Rocky franchise like Sylvester Stallone’s was, but Jordan is certainly following his footsteps both in Creed’s fictional boxing world and real life. Much like Stallone did, Jordan is now set to act and direct in Creed 3 as a recent interview confirmed.
Jordan has been slowly adding executive producer credits to his name over the last few years in films like Creed 2, Fahrenheit 451, as well as the upcoming Just Mercy, Without Remorse (based on a Tom Clancy novel), and DC’s Static Shock, and had expressed interest in eventually directing Creed 3, with producer Irvin Wrinkler promising him a fair chance at the job.
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However, in a recent interview with MTV News, his Creed co-star Tessa Thompson admitted that the job opening for directing Creed 3 is officially closed. Amidst jokes of Jordan being named PEOPLE's Sexiest Man Alive in 2020, Thompson said when “he [Jordan] is engaging with me as a director. I’m just going to tell him to dial down the sexiness,” thus dispelling any further doubt of who’ll sit in the director’s chair.
Thompson, who also plays Valkyrie in the MCU films, added that Creed 3 is likely to begin shooting sometime towards the latter half of 2021. Until then, Jordan will appear in several projects scheduled for 2021, like some guest appearances in Disney’s What If…?, an animated Marvel series for which he and Chadwick Boseman had already recorded a few episodes.
The first two Creed films were very successful movies in which Jordan received high praise for his performance, but he has a high standard to live up to after Ryan Coogler and Steven Caple Jr. directed the first two. Only time will tell if Jordan’s multitasking role will net him the same kind of praise of earlier Rocky films got, or if Creed will go down the same path of repetition that got the best of Stallone’s darling.
Creed is owned by MGM and is considered the studio's biggest property after James Bond. With MGM currently up for sale, it's unclear how that could affect Creed 3's distribution, the only known facts are that Jordan will now direct the Winkler Films Productions and MGM effort, for which Stallone is set to take part in writing again.
Creed 3 production details are still TBA.
Source: MTV News