The ninth installment of the Rocky franchise is taking a little longer than expected.
Creed III, which stars Michael B. Jordan, has officially moved its release date from Nov. 23, 2022 to March 3, 2023. In addition to being the ninth installment of the Rocky franchise, Creed III marks the third installment in the Creed spinoff franchise.
The first film, which was written and directed by Ryan Coogler, grossed over $170 million at the box office.
The film’s predecessor, Creed II, was directed by Steven Caple Jr. and grossed $214.1 million on an $80 million budget.
The film sees Jordan reprise his role Adonis “Donnie” Creed, the son of Rocky Balboa’s competitor turned friend Apollo Creed. Aside from Jordan, Tessa Thompson will reprise her role as Donnie’s girlfriend Bianca and Phylicia Rashad returns as his stepmother Mary Anne.
In addition, Jonathan Majors is joining the cast as Anderson Dame, an apparent adversary to Adonis.
In an interview with Variety, Majors shared that not only did he push his body to the limit for the role of Anderson Dame, but he got punched in the face about 100 times during the filming of Creed III.
Creed III will mark Jordan’s directorial debut. The film was written by Keenan Coogler and King Richard scribe Zach Baylin.