CREED Sequel Aiming For 2017, Which Means Ryan Coogler Won't Direct

Last week, I wrote about some of the ideas Sylvester Stallone and Creed director Ryan Coogler have for Creed II, and in that report, Stallone talked about how he wasn't sure what the timeline would look like for production on the sequel because of Coogler's lack of availability. (The 29-year-old filmmaker is in talks to direct Marvel's Black Panther.) But now it seems that MGM wants to get this movie into theaters as quickly as possible to capitalize on Creed's popularity: MGM CEO Gary Barber told Variety that he's aiming for a November 2017 release for Creed II, which would be exactly two years after the previous film hit theaters.

The bad news here is that if this timeline holds true, there's essentially no way that Coogler will be back to direct this sequel. That's very bad news, because the reason Creed felt like a vibrant, energetic, vital piece of filmmaking was because it was Coogler's passion project. With him out of the picture (or just in an executive producer capacity while he's busy at Marvel), chances aren't great that the studio will be able to find someone else with that same passion and ability to come in and take over the franchise. Aiming for a release date (though Barber says the date isn't officially locked in yet) before having a script in hand is almost never a good sign creatively-speaking, and now there's a very real danger of Creed II becoming what a lot of people assumed Creed would be: a cynical cash grab.

Considering the ambitious story ideas Coogler had, I would have loved to have seen him get behind the camera again for the sequel, but it looks like that's not going to happen. Now all that's left is to hope that whoever MGM gets as a replacement shares the same love of the Rocky movies and the same drive to elevate this sequel above just cashing in on the typical formula.