PHILADELPHIA—There’s a scene in “Creed” where the latest brash boxer who challenges the upstart protege of Rocky Balboa barks, “No one cares about Balboa anymore!”
Yo, through 40 years of Rocky as an underdog, champion, and aging, widowed fighter, fans sure do care.
Dressed in robes, fedora hats, and even boxing boots, the costumed enthusiasts chanting “Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!” on Friday had one more reason to cheer for Philadelphia’s favorite fictional son.
Sylvester Stallone goes one more round as Balboa in the spinoff “Creed,” and he wants the character to tally even more before he joins Adrian, Apollo, and Paulie in that great squared circle in the sky.
“There’s more to go,” Stallone said Friday. “I would like to follow this character until eventually he’s an angel.”
The 69-year-old Stallone, writer of the first “Rocky” that earned 10 Academy Award nominations including best picture, promised more movies based on Balboa and Adonis Creed. Creed is the son of Rocky’s heavyweight rival and beach-running friend, Apollo Creed, and the titular character who coaxed Balboa out of retirement and into a trainer’s role in the movie set for a Nov. 25 release.
Stallone and fellow “Creed” actors Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, writer-director Ryan Coogler and producer Irwin Winkler attended a celebration of the movie atop the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps.
Mayor Michael Nutter attended a screening Nov. 5 and said the movie should win an Academy Award for best picture. The “Rocky” series spawned six more movies, and all the films shared a common co-star with Stallone—Philadelphia.
“The movie put Philadelphia literally on the map,” Nutter said.
Stallone’s run through the Italian Market and up the museum’s 72 steps in the first movie propped both locations from local landmarks into iconic tourist attractions. A bronze statue of the hard-luck fighter stands at the base of the steps.
“Creed” opens a more modern Philadelphia to a new generation of fans: Johnny Brenda’s, Max’s Steaks, Front Street Gym. All take center stage in the new flick and so does newer lingo. “Yo!” makes way for “jawn,” a Philly word that can be used to describe anything.
