Michael B Jordan, who will be donning the director's hat for the third part of the Creed franchise, recently confirmed that Sylvester Stallone will not be returning to play his iconic character, Rocky Balboa, for Creed 3. 

In a recent interview with IGN, while promoting his latest film, Without Remorse, Jordan explained the absence of Rocky, who trains the titular character Adonis Creed, played by Jordan himself.

Jordan said, "I think that Sly (Sylvester Stallone) let it be known that he wasn’t coming back for this one. But, you know, his essence and his spirit… there’s always going to be a little bit of Rocky within Adonis. But this is the Creed franchise, and we really want to build this story and this world around him moving forward. So, it’s always respect and always a sh*t-ton of love for what he’s built, but we really want to push and navigate Adonis forward and the family that he created."

Creed, written and directed by Ryan Coogler, rebooted the Rocky franchise in 2015 by taking forward the story of Adonis Creed, son of Apollo Creed, Rocky's rival in the 1976 film. Both Creed and its 2018-sequel were met with critical acclaim and box-office success and the third part has been in anticipation ever since.