Carl Weathers Almost Made A Ghostly Cameo In Creed 2
"Rocky IV" was my favorite movie in the franchise as an '80s kid, although the death of Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) was tough to take. We knew something bad was going to happen when the showboating former champ stepped into the ring against Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), but the brutal manner in which he got destroyed was shocking. The way Apollo was left twitching on the canvas as his life ebbed away was deeply upsetting, made even worse by Drago's stone-cold delivery verdict: "If he dies, he dies."
Nowadays, the film only comes fourth in my overall assessment of the series (behind "Rocky," "Rocky III," and "Rocky Balboa"). When you take a step back from the nostalgia and the irresistibly cheesy bombast, only two things happen in the movie. Apollo dies, then Rocky gets payback by beating the Russian fighter in his own yard. Big events, admittedly, but the rest is just filler, a mixture of montage and weird period touches like Paulie's budding romance with his robot.
Even so, Creed's fatal fight against Drago stands out as a series highpoint, made so powerful because Apollo has an arc almost as compelling as Rocky's. He starts out as the heel in the first two movies before becoming the Italian Stallion's best bud and trainer in "Rocky III," culminating in that classic surf-bound montage romp, before succumbing to his ego and desire to recapture his old glory by facing the killer Soviet in the ring. His death was arguably even more impactful than that of Rocky's trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith), and the remaining entries never got close to topping the sheer drama of that moment.
Carl Weathers made Apollo such a memorable character, so it came as no surprise when his old on-screen adversary, Dolph Lundgren, revealed that the "Count of Monte Fisto" almost made a comeback in "Creed II."
Adonis Creed facing the ghosts of the past
I've had a lukewarm reaction to the "Creed" series so far. While I appreciate the attempts of Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, and Steven Caple Jr. to take the franchise in a modern direction, they perhaps play it a bit too understatedly, toning down the melodrama of the "Rocky" movies that always got the blood pumping. As long as Sylvester Stallone was still involved they were caught between two stools, trying to make a fresh start while still trading in nostalgia for Rocky's heyday.
When the first "Creed" spinoff movie was announced, it was inevitable that Apollo's son Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) would end up facing the ghosts of his past and his dad's tragic demise at the gloves of Ivan Drago. The legacy of that deadly fight provided the new series with dramatic heft, but I was a little surprised that Adonis's reckoning with the Drago clan came relatively early in "Creed II."
With Stallone back on screenwriting duties, he tried his best to up the stakes. Not only did he make Adonis a father-to-be, but he also rehashed the format of "Rocky III," bringing the new World Heavyweight Champion down when he is totally battered by Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), leaving him low on confidence. Munteanu is a daunting figure but he is overshadowed by Lundgren, making his hotly anticipated return as the old foe.
The Swedish actor embraced his chance to reprise his most famous role, giving a tightly controlled performance as a man full of rage and regret who can't let the past go, hellbent on avenging his humiliating defeat by Rocky through his son. Unfortunately, that makes Viktor a proxy who lacks the sheer malice of his father, and the film doesn't quite deliver the emotional payoff that the saga demands.
We almost got the return of Apollo Creed in Creed II
A few months after "Creed II" hit theaters, Dolph Lundgren revealed that the original screenplay included plans to bring back Apollo Creed from beyond the grave. He said (via Cinema Blend):
"It was a great idea I thought [to bring Brigitte Nielsen back]. In the original first draft it was Apollo came back. Or like his ghost or something. It was a little hokey, you know. So I think it was much better to bring Brigitte back."
Revisiting the Creed-Drago feud was always the natural course for the "Creed" movies and Sylvester Stallone has never been shy of using flashbacks as inspiration for his famous fighter, but bringing Carl Weathers back in a ghostly capacity might have been a step too far.
If Apollo's cameo made it to the final film, it wouldn't have been altogether surprising. In 2019, Stallone expressed his regret about killing off Creed so soon, so you can understand the temptation to include him in "Creed II" as his boy is about to face the challenge of Ivan Drago's own son. We can get an inkling of how that might have played out from "Rocky V," when the Italian Stallion received encouragement from a flashback to his deceased trainer Mickey. It's hard to imagine how the involvement of Weathers could have been anything other than a pep talk to the son he never knew, presumably with a bit of de-aging technology to restore the actor to his '80s glory. No doubt such a cameo would have pleased some "Rocky" fans but, given how the "Creed" spinoffs have worked so hard to reach escape velocity from Stallone's original creation, it was perhaps a nostalgic haymaker worth ducking.