C3_19200_RC Michael B. Jordan stars as Adonis Creed and Jonathan Majors as Damian Anderson in CREED III A Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures film Photo credit: Eli Ade © 2022 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Courtney Howard // Film Critic
Michael B. Jordan laces up his gloves once again for another round playing Adonis “Donny” Creed in CREED III, but he’s also putting on his director’s cap for the first time, helming the sure-to-be crowdpleaser. In this latest iteration, it’s been 7 years living on the highest personal and professional peak when he’s confronted by a friend from his past – someone he may or may not want to deal with at this point in his life. And there’ll be no stopping Donny when he’s gotta do what he’s gotta do.
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At the trailer’s recent virtual press conference, Jordan says he felt it was the right time to push forward his career ambitions.
“I started out doing background work and extra work and just kind of just seeing the sets evolve, seeing everybody’s job, seeing how a real production’s storytelling took place. I finally got to this place in my career where I wanted to tell a story and not just be in front of the camera, not just execute somebody else’s vision.”
Helming such a large production was a challenge, but one Jordan was confident he could do.
“Having a shorthand with [the cast and crew], a clear vision, for what story I want to tell because I’ve been marinating on and developing it for such a long time. It was the most challenging thing that I’ve ever done by far just daily pushing myself to new limits, learning how to communicate and have other people pick up on that passion, on that enthusiasm and want to execute your vision to the best of their ability.”
We can expect universally resonant themes out of this new chapter, Jordan says.
“Family is always the core: family and heart. You have to face your past and find out who you really are. It is something that we address in this movie. It’s sort of a homecoming as well. Remembering where you come from is really important in this one. Settling debts and being accountable for your actions is something that we wanted to look at as well.”
There’s also a new character for Donny to play against, played by Jonathan Majors.
“The character Damian [is] definitely a pivotal person and a pillar in Adonis’ life that comes back around and needs to kind of get addressed.”
Every ROCKY and CREED movie has included an inspirational, rousing training montage. Jordan said his approach, having learned from the masters, was to capture every punching bag hit and every character building moment.
“From the montage, I think: what are the stakes? How [is] your character leaving the montage better than he was when he first started? I think that’s a good [rule] to stick to.”
Music is another thing this franchise does so well. Jordan shares that CREED III will continue with that tradition.
“Music was definitely a tool for storytelling that we wanted to evolve, especially because we have such a strong character like Bianca in music, being a musician and wanted to evolve her as well. We found new ways to grow Bianca’s character in a way that I felt was truthful, and [was a] natural progression.
Currently working on the soundtrack, we have Dreamville executive producing the soundtrack with J. Cole. That’s another big piece to this as well, within the storytelling throughout the soundtrack. We wanted to make sure we fired off on all cylinders.
We wanted to make sure we grew up, and still double down on the things that people expect and love from this franchise, but also take them to new places as well.”
CREED III opens in theaters on March 3rd, 2023.
