The much-awaited second trailer for Creed II has just been released by MGM and it. Is. Epic. We’ll do a quick breakdown of what Rocky and Creed series fans can expect from the sequel, set to hit theatres in November.
An expansion of the first Creed II trailer, #2 explores Adonis’ successful boxing career, the birth of his baby daughter with Tessa Thompson’s Bianca character, and problems with their relationship.
The trailer opens with scenes shot just this summer in New Mexico’s desert, which should make for a really different training montage – literally the opposite of Rocky IV’s snowy training in Russia.
Best of all, Rocky appears to be well, recovered from his cancer treatments, and strong enough to hurl an enormous medicine ball at Donny’s stomach. It’ll be great to see Rocky actually participating in the training again after we were treated to only a single scene of speed bag in the original Creed before illness prevented Balboa from being the hands-on trainer he was with Tommy Gunn. Trailer #2 also shows Rocky coaching a group of young kids in the gym, so it’s possible he’s working in the gym again ’cause, ya know, he’s gotta be around it.
“He broke things in me that’s never been fixed.”
And, the moment all Rocky fans have been waiting for since 1985 … a glimpse of a Balboa vs. Drago face-off. We can now confirm that Rocky is going to punch Drago, as revealed by Sylvester Stallone in a recent RadarOnline interview in which Sly talks about the Creed II storyline AND the slug to the face: “It has some nice twists and turns from it – and I get to punch Dolph in the face again, which is wonderful.”
More reveals of Dolph Lundgren’s character are shown, though, as expected, Ivan Drago does not speak. “The kid was raised in hate,” Rocky says of the brutal giant Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), shown in some cool training snapshots, hovering off the floor with pure muscular strength. “He’s literally raised his son in a culture of hatred, like some societies do,” Stallone said in a recent interview “They take their children and turn them into weapons.”
Finally – pay attention to the musical score near the end of the trailer and find cleverly woven notes of Bill Conti’s “Rocky Theme”.