I remember watching Rocky IV as a wee young lad and thinking “Rocky might actually die here!” at the hands of Drago. There were rumors that he would succumb to his brain injury in the climax of Rocky V. For some reason, the potential death of Rocky seems to be always semi-present. So it is no surprise to learn from the man himself that another filmmaker also leaned that way.
Out doing publicity for Tulsa King, Sylvester Stallone gave a big interview on his entire career to GQ. Having played Rocky Balboa on screen in eight separate movies, to discuss his career and look back at some of his most iconic roles.
He wasn’t in Creed III, meaning the conclusion to Creed II, with Rocky reuniting with his estranged son (Milo Ventimiglia) and meeting his only grandson, is likely the character’s ultimate conclusion.
In the interview, he said Creed director Ryan Coogler was “very persistent” about ending Rocky’s journey with his death in Creed. Stallone pushed back and held the line.
“I was never comfortable. I dodged that bullet for two years, three years, and Ryan Coogler kept pushing it. But I didn’t want to do it because the way he had written it, Rocky dies. He gets Lou Gehrig’s disease. And I said, I have a big thing about characters like that dying. I’d much rather them get on a train going somewhere, and you never see them again. But to die, it will just bum the audience out completely.”
The script was rewritten, Rocky survived, and Stallone went on to be nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor, and won a Golden Globe.
“It was a lot of dramatic acting in that because I couldn’t use my body. I wasn’t fighting. So that was a good challenge, and it turned out pretty well.”
In the interview, Stallone also references movies in his career that he thinks deserved a sequel. Cobra, Tango & Cash, and Demolition Man. The third one of those movies remains hilariously prescient to this day.
