Like Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) mentoring Adonis “Donnie” Creed (Michael B. Jordan) in and out of the ring, Jordan looked to Ryan Coogler when making his directorial debut on Creed III. The third installment of the Rocky sequel-spinoff series following 2015’s Creed and 2018’s Creed II, Jordan is back for another round to duke it out with a figure from Donnie’s past: the street-hardened, hungry Damian “Dame” Anderson (Jonathan Majors). Jordan also steps behind the camera, taking advice from his Creed and Marvel’s Black Panther collaborator Coogler and his A Journal for Jordan director Denzel Washington.
“Directing has always been an aspiration, but the timing had to be right. Creed III is that moment — a time in my life where I’ve grown more sure of who I am, holding agency in my own story, maturing personally, growing professionally, and learning from the Greats like Ryan Coogler, most recently Denzel Washington, and other top tier directors I respect. All of which sets the table for this moment,” Jordan said in a statement last year when announcing his directorial debut on MGM and United Artists’ Creed III.
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Jordan continued: “This franchise and in particular the themes of Creed III are deeply personal to me. I look forward to sharing the next chapter of Adonis Creed’s story with the awesome responsibility of being its director and namesake.”
At a press conference for the Creed III trailer premiere, Jordan revealed how Coogler inspired him to make the jump to directing. Jordan starred in Coogler’s own feature directorial debut, 2013’s Fruitvale Station, reteaming with the filmmaker for Creed and the first Black Panther.
“I was talking to Ryan Coogler back when we were doing Creed. He was just like, ‘It’s never the right time. You just gotta jump in the deep end and go for it,’” Jordan said. “So it just felt like it was the right time for me.”
And like his Black Panther co-star Chadwick Boseman — who had a personal connection with Washington in front of and behind the scenes — Jordan turned to the veteran actor after starring in Washington’s A Journal for Jordan.
“Talking to a lot of directors that have been through this before really gave me a good idea of what these experiences were going to be,” he said. “So I leaned on those conversations and that advice. I just got finished working with Denzel right before this project. So I had that wisdom and support that was there. It really helped me out a lot during prep, taking it a day at a time but also always planning 10 steps ahead.”
Jordan also credited co-star Majors for his work as a scene partner, playing an old friend-turned-antagonist up against the world after spending most of his life behind bars.
“For me as a director, just to have that running mate and scene partner made all the difference in the world,” Jordan explained. “I think he’s extremely talented. The world is finding out daily how incredible this man is. The work that he does is finally getting the props, you know, the props that it’s due.”
Majors “was incredible, man,” Jordan added. “He showed up every day ready to go to war, ready to work. Me and him bonded in a way that I’ve never had the opportunity to before. This was my first time directing, and that relationship between know director and actor, I understand that now. It’s a bond that will last forever.”
Starring Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Jonathan Majors, Wood Harris, Mila Davis-Kent, Florian Munteanu, and Phylicia Rashad, Creed III is in theaters March 3rd, 2023.
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