Creed II (2018)

This is a sequel to the 2015 film of the same name

Summary

-With former boxing champion Rocky Balboa acting as his coach, Adonis Johnson, the son of late boxing legend Apollo Creed, takes on Viktor Drago, the son of former Russian boxing champion Ivan Drago

Cast

-Michael B. Jordan: Adonis Johnson

-Sylvester Stallone: Rocky Balboa

-Tessa Thompson: Bianca

-Phylicia Rashad: Mary Anne Creed

-Dolph Lundgren: Ivan Drago

-Florian Munteanu: Viktor Drago

-Russell Hornsby: Buddy Marcelle

-Wood Harris: Tony "Little Duke" Burton

-Mile Ventimiglia: Robert Balboa

-Robbie Johns: Logan Balboa

-Andre Ward: Danny "The Stuntman" Wheeler

-Brigitte Nielsen: Ludmilla Drago

Did You Know?

-This is the fifth film to feature two turtles named Cuff and Link. In real life, they are Sylvester Stallone's pets and have been for nearly 50 years

-Rocky is two years old than Mickey, the man who coached Rocky in the original 1976 film

-Just like the 1985 film Rocky IV, none of the Russian characters are played by actual Russian-born people. Dolph Lundgren, who plays Ivan Drago, is Swedish. Brigitte Nielsen, who plays Ludmilla, is Danish and Florian Munteanu, who plays Viktor Drago is German-Romanian

-Dolph Lundgren worked with director Steven Caple Jr to change his appearance and visibly age the character Ivan Drago. He did this to show the poverty and suffering the character had experienced

-Brigitte Nielsen is actually an ex-wife of Sylvester Stallone. They were engaged during the filming of Rocky IV, married after the premier and divorced two years later

-The search for the perfect person to play Viktor Drago took several months and trips around the world. The production crew met with several comedians and athletes who were also disciples of martial arts, kickboxing, boxing and American football. After searching through hundreds of photos, the right man had been found. German-Romanian boxer Florian Munteanu, known as "Big Nasty" was chosen

-When shooting her scenes, Brigitte Nielsen was 7 months pregnant. Filming was made to shoot around her ever increasing stomach. She gave birth to her fifth child, but first daughter, who she named Frida, exactly two weeks after filming concluded

-The film crew, Sylvester Stallone, Michael B. Jordan and Steven Caple Jr spent ten weeks filming in and around Philadelphia and then filmed the desert scenes in Deming, New Mexico

-This was filmed during the Anthony Joshua v. Joseph Parker fight in Wales on 03/31/2018

-Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren trained just as hard as the people they were coaching in the film, just to make sure they were in shape just like Adonis Creed and Viktor Drago

-One of the people fighting hard to get the role of Viktor Drago was UFC fighter Sage Northcutt

-The fight between Adonis Creed and Danny "The Stuntman" Wheeler took place at the newer version of MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Ironically, in the fight between Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago, that fight took place at the old MGM Grand, now Bally's, in Vegas

-In both this film and Rocky IV, Adonis gets his ribs broken by Viktor Drago just as Rocky got his ribs broken from Ivan Drago

-This film does not begin with recap of the final fight scene, like in Rocky Balboa and Creed

-In order to be seen as a credible fighter on screen, Michael B. Jordan underwent a strict diet and trained 2-3 times a day

-Michael B. Jordan wanted coach Patrice "Boogie" Harris to train him like a real boxer so he can develop these skills and develop his speed and coordination

-In this film, Bianca is suffering from progressive hearing loss while her daughter Amara is totally deaf. It's very rare for someone with progressive hearing loss to create a totally deaf child with a partner who has no hearing problems themselves. In this case, Adonis Creed

-During the 1st weigh-in, Ivan Drago tells Adonis "You're not as big as your father". Carl Weathers is 6'1'' while Michael B. Jordan is only 6'