Sylvester Stallone Is Right To Be Annoyed About Rocky's Drago Spinoff
With no ownership rights to the franchise, Sylvester Stallone is right to be annoyed about Rocky’s Drago spin-off and his lack of involvement in the project. It was recently announced in an online exclusive that MGM is developing a Drago spin-off movie starring Dolph Lundgren, reprising his role as Russian boxer Ivan Drago from 1985’s Rocky IV (via The Wrap). Drago’s son, Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), is also expected to appear following his Creed II debut, where Drago returned as his trainer.
The titular Rocky franchise was created by and stars Sylvester Stallone as boxer Rocky Balboa. Stallone, who wrote the original Rocky screenplay, received Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay nominations at the 1977 Academy Awards, in addition to taking home Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Editing. Rocky’s success resulted in five sequels, three Creed spin-offs, and worldwide sales of $1.7 billion. Yet despite his franchise’s huge success, Stallone shared he has “zero ownership of ‘Rocky’” and accused Rocky producer Irwin Winkler of withholding ownership rights to the franchise (via Variety). This conflict resulted in Stallone pulling out of the third Creed movie on his own terms, though he has said he would return to the franchise.
Related: Sylvester Stallone Is Right: Rocky Balboa Really Was A Miracle
Now, the Winkler family has decided to expand the franchise with a Drago spin-off, excluding Stallone. Adding insult to injury, Stallone learned that the Drago project was happening from The Wrap’s exclusive. He took to Instagram in a now-deleted post, venting that Winkler is “once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me” (via Instagram). “I APOLOGIZE to the FANS I
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