Creed III: Tessa Thompson Reveals the Word She Refused to Say in Threequel

Creed III was released in theaters this weekend, and it has already reached a box office milestone. The movie is also doing well with critics and audiences alike, and currently has an 87% critics score and 96% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. ComicBook.com‘s Patrick Cavanaugh gave the movie a 4 out of 5, and called it “a knockout that swaps spectacle for sincerity.” The new movie was helmed by Michael B. Jordan who also returns to the titular role. Other returning cast members include Phylicia Rashad and Tessa Thompson, who recently talked to The Hollywood Reporter about why she didn’t want to say “jawn” in the threequel. If you’ve seen Creed and Creed II, you know “jawn” is a slang term used in Philadelphia that can refer to a person, place, or thing. Thompson’s Bianca uses the word a lot, but she wanted to let the term go in the latest installment.

“Yeah, it was intentional,” Thompson revealed when asked if she never says “jawn” in the film. “I said to them, ‘I’m not saying ‘jawn’ in this movie because we’ve heard it, we’ve done it. I want to break new territory.’ Bianca is the only character where I have worn tattoos. I now have 12; I had less when we made the first one. And near my right wrist, I have a tattoo that says yes, which I wore in the first film, and it became a thing. The first thing you see when Donnie enters her apartment is a yes that she has on her wall, and it was a whole thematic thing that Ryan and I talked a lot about. In the second film, she changed that tattoo to ‘yesterday’ because there was this idea that her feelings had changed.”

Thompson continued, “And so not saying ‘jawn’ was also a way of saying inside of the filmmaking that you are going to witness someone that is constantly evolving. She’s been in L.A. for a long while, and I think she has matured. So one way of signaling that is just that she speaks differently. She hasn’t changed fundamentally, but there are things about her where she has grown into a fuller expression of who she is. So there are no ‘jawns,’ but who knows, a jawn could always come back around.”

Why Isn’t Sylvester Stallone in Creed III? 

While there will be many familiar faces in Creed III, one person who will not be returning is Rocky star, Sylvester Stallone. 

“I think that Sly let it be known that he wasn’t coming back for this one but I think, you know, his essence and his spirit… there’s always going to be a little bit of Rocky within Adonis,” Jordan previously told IGN. “But this is a Creed franchise, and we really want to build this story and this world around him moving forward. So, it’s always respect and always a shit-ton of love for what he’s built, but we really want to push and navigate Adonis forward and the family that he created.” Jordan added, “So hopefully you guys will love what I’m thinking… what we’re cooking up. I think it’s going to be something special.”

Creed III is now playing in theaters.