Sylvester Stallone Confirms New Rocky Sequel Is Finished

Ryan Northrup is a Senior Staff Writer on ScreenRant’s Movie & TV News team, where he has authored nearly 5,000 articles, including features and reviews. A graduate of McMaster University, Ryan began his career in public relations before attending Vancouver Film School. There, he built lasting industry connections and optioned a feature film screenplay.

A new Rocky sequel is one step closer.

Sylvester Stallone made his debut as Rocky Balboa in his 1976 sports classic, a film that he also wrote. Directed by John G. Avildsen, the movie launched a franchise that now includes six main Rocky movies and three Creed spinoffs, with Creed II (2018) marking Stallone’s final appearance as Balboa.

Speaking with TV Insider, Stallone now confirms that he has written a script for a new Rocky sequel. The actor, now 80, reveals that he approached the movie as more of a personal project, however, and isn’t sure if it will ever come to fruition:

I have written another chapter to the Rocky saga, and I think it would be a good opportunity to explore life outside the ring and how the world is changing around him and how his neighborhood is not like it once was, and he devotes himself to the less fortunate, but I don’t know if it would really be that interesting to most people. So, I just wrote it for myself.

I have written another chapter to the Rocky saga, and I think it would be a good opportunity to explore life outside the ring and how the world is changing around him and how his neighborhood is not like it once was, and he devotes himself to the less fortunate, but I don’t know if it would really be that interesting to most people. So, I just wrote it for myself.

There might be an opportunity for a prequel because I believe it’s fascinating to watch where these individual characters came from and I have many ideas of how their paths crossed. During that particular period in time, the 1960s, there was a great transition happening in the country and in music and many other elements of society, so I would love to do that project.

There might be an opportunity for a prequel because I believe it’s fascinating to watch where these individual characters came from and I have many ideas of how their paths crossed. During that particular period in time, the 1960s, there was a great transition happening in the country and in music and many other elements of society, so I would love to do that project.

The last proper Rocky film was 2006’s Rocky Balboa, a film that saw Stallone’s character come out of retirement for one final fight. In the Creed movies, Balboa’s fighting days are behind him, and he now runs a restaurant named Adrian’s, a testament to his late wife. When last audiences saw Rocky in Creed II, he had traveled to Vancouver to reconnect with his estranged son, Robert Jr.

• ©MGM/courtesy Everett Collection

• ©MGM/courtesy Everett Collection

The door is open, then, for a Rocky return, but Stallone’s comments about the plot of his sequel do raise questions about how much demand there would be for the film. Rocky is very much a franchise built around boxing, and exploring the character’s life outside of that sport could lack the hook to really draw audiences in.

That being said, the character that Stallone created remains iconic in the world of sports movies, and it’s entirely possible that he can successfully live on outside his career as a boxer and a trainer. Made at a lower budget level, a quiet and more contemplative Rocky movie could serve as a touching conclusion to that character’s story.

Sign in to claim your place on
the leaderboard!

Sign in to claim your place on
the leaderboard!

As for Stallone’s prequel idea, the upcoming I Play Rocky could serve as an interesting test regarding whether audiences will embrace a different actor playing Balboa. Directed by Peter Farrelly, I Play Rocky features Anthony Ippolito as Stallone and chronicles the actor’s arduous journey to bring his version of the character to the big screen. The film hits theaters on November 20.

Beyond I Play Rocky, the future of the franchise remains something of a question mark. Creed III (2023) was a success critically and commercially, and star and director Michael B. Jordan has confirmed that a Creed 4 is in development. After Rocky himself was absent from the third film, it’s unclear if he would return for a fourth. The fourth installment doesn’t yet have a release date.

Even though nothing is set in stone regarding Stallone’s involvement in Rocky‘s future, his confirmation that another script is complete could be welcome news to those who have been following the franchise. Even if a sequel or prequel never materialize, the character is sure to remain one of the most legendary figures in the world of Hollywood sports movies.