In January, 2015, TMZ released an excerpt from a telephone interview with actor Burt Young, beloved for his role as Paulie throughout the entire Rocky movie series with the exception of Ryan Coogler’s new spinoff “Creed“.

Mr. Young’s character of Paulie Pennino will not be appearing in the sixth sequel to the original 1976 film; in fact the new plotline to the series reveals that Paulie has passed away and rests alongside his sister Adrian (played by actress Talia Shire in the first five Rocky films), whose character succumbed to cancer in 2006’s Rocky Balboa.

The TMZ team seems to come to the conclusion that Burt Young is calling Sylvester Stallone a sellout in a comment made in the interview, while others argue that Young probably means Stallone is just a good salesman.