LOS ANGELES, Oct. 18 (UPI) — United Artists Releasing released the trailer for Creed III on Tuesday. The third film in the Rocky spinoff also marks star Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut.
The trailer picks up seven years after Creed II. Adonis Creed (Jordan) is running a gym and has a 7-year-old daughter (Mila Davis-Kent) with Bianca (Tessa Thompson).
A childhood friend, Damian (Jonathan Majors), comes to see Adonis after getting out of prison. Adonis initially offers to train Damian, but ultimately prepares to fight him in the ring.
Michael B. Jordan spoke at a Zoom press conference Monday about Creed III. Though the script is by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin, from a story by Creed writer/director Ryan Coogler, Jordan said the story of Creed III is personal to him.
“You have to face your past and find out who you really are,” Jordan said. “Settling debts and being accountable for your actions is something that we wanted to look at as well.”
In addition to Adonis’s success in the ring, Creed III shows Bianca’s success in music, and their success together as parents. Davis-Kent is deaf like her character, and it was important to Jordan to include the deaf community in the film, including the ASL interpreters who assisted on the set.
“We’re just normalizing it,” Jordan said. “It was a community of people that didn’t really get true representation as much as they should.”
Jordan said he asked Ryan Coogler how he would know when it was time to step behind the camera. He recalled Coogler told him, “It’s never the right time. You’ve just got to jump in the deep end.”
As both director and star of Creed III, Jordan said he relied on his team to help him multitask. Jordan said he had to address every department of the crew while preparing for his role and staying in fighting shape.
The trailer also hints at the sort of training montages for which the Rocky and Creed films are famous. Adonia trains his daughter on the heavy bag and punches tree trunks himself in some shots.
Jordan said he approached the requisite montages from a character perspective.
“What are the stakes?” Coogler said. “How is your character leaving the montage better than when you first started?”
Creed III is in theaters March 3.
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