Ivan Drago was Rocky Balboa’s most fearsome foe and Dolph Lundgren’s chilling performance helped turn Rocky IV into a genuine classic. Thirty years later, Drago returned in Creed II, training his son Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu) to face off against Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan). Following the positive fan reaction to Lundgren’s return, MGM announced a Drago spinoff movie, but we haven’t heard all that much about it over the last two years.
Our own Tyler Nichols recently spoke with Dolph Lundgren about his upcoming movie, Wanted Man, and couldn’t resist asking if there was any movement on the Drago spinoff movie.
“You know it was really tracking well for a while and there was a script,” Lundgren said. “And then there were comments on the script and then it kind of had to deal with Ukraine and and things like that. But right now, because of the Creed Universe with Michael B. Jordan, you know, they were working on Creed 4, and now they kind of put a stop to that because of his co-star, I guess, being somebody that got convicted. So I don’t know what’s going to happen. I haven’t heard anything, but I hope it happens in the future.“
When asked where he’d like to see Drago’s story go in the spinoff, Lundgren said, “I think that ‘coming to America’ story is interesting where we decide because of the war over there, we decide to come this way. I think the father/son relationship is interesting. We’d rather explore that. And you know, Dragos an older man, you know, [who’s] bitter about his past and, you know, trying to help use his son to prove himself. I thought that was an interesting thing that was brought up in [Creed 2]. In the last picture, which maybe we can go further.“
Shortly after the Drago spinoff was announced, Sylvester Stallone came out swinging, slamming producer Irwin Winkler for “once again picking clean the bones of another wonderful character I created without even telling me.” He also called out Lundgren for not telling him what was going on. In response, Lundgren said he had been under the impression that Stallone was involved as a producer or even as an actor, but he had since gotten in touch with his friend to clear the air.
Would you like to see Dolph Lundgren return for a Drago spinoff movie?