Sylvester Stallone is upset that MGM is doing a Rocky

Sylvester Stallone is upset that MGM is doing a Rocky spin-off about the Drago family

Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren in 2010

Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren in 2010Photo: Kiyoshi Ota (Getty Images)

Sylvester Stallone spent the first few years of the pandemic cutting together a new, much more self-serious version of Rocky IV, but he’s since been vocal about his frustration with Rocky series producer Irwin Winkler – who continues to control the rights to the films and their Creed spin-offs, completely excluding Stallone (beyond the money he’s already made working on the films). Earlier this month, Stallone posted a (now-deleted) Instagram appeal for Irwin to give him “at least a little” of the “leftovers” of the Rocky rights so he can “leave some of Rocky” to his children.

Now the Rocky franchise will continue without Stallone, both in a third Creed film and in a recently revealed Drago spin-off centered on Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago and his son Florian Munteanus Viktor Drago from Creed 2. None of the projects will involve Stallone in any way, which obviously means he’s not making any money from them, and he’s unsurprisingly pissed about it: “AGAIN AGAIN the ALLOWABLE 94-year-old PRODUCER and HIS SELF-NEEDED USELESS CHILDREN are once again picking up what from is left over from the bones of another wonderful character!! !” Stallone posted on Instagram (via ), referring to 91-year-old Winkler and his allegedly selfish and useless children.

Stallone implies he would never let them do a Drago spin-off if he was in charge, adding that he feels sorry for “the FANS” and he “never wanted ROCKY to be exploited FOR THIS GREED becomes”. He also added “#no shame #sad day #parasite”. (For the record, the same Stallone who never wanted Rocky to be exploited has appeared in six Rocky films and two Creed films, which is more than the number of Star Wars films Yoda has physically appeared in.)

As for why Stallone doesn’t own any of Rocky, it has to be one of those old Hollywood deals where writers and creators screw up while producers keep the rights (just ask any Marvel Comics writer) because he certainly created the character by Rocky Balboa for the first Rocky film.