Sylvester Stallone is mad that MGM is making a movie about Drago

Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren in 2010. Photo: Kiyoshi Ota (Getty Images)

Sylvester Stallone spent the first few years of the pandemic making a new, much more serious version of Rocky IV, but he has since been very vocal about his frustration with Rocky series producer Irwin Winkler – who continues to control the rights to the films and their spin-offs of Creed, excluding Stallone entirely (besides the money he’s already made working on the films). Earlier this month, Stallone posted a (since-deleted) plea on Instagram for Irwin to give him “at least a little bit” of “what’s left” of the Rocky rights so he can “leave something of Rocky” to his children.

Now, the Rocky franchise will continue without Stallone, in both a third Creed film and the recently unveiled Drago spin-off, focusing on Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago and his son, Florian Munteanu’s Victor Drago from Creed 2. Neither project won’t feature Stallone at all , which obviously means he’s not making any money off of it, and he’s not surprisingly mad about it: “YET AGAIN A PITIFUL 94-YEAR-OLD PRODUCER & HIS SELFISH USELESS CHILDREN are once again robbing what’s left OF THE BONES of another wonderful a hero!! !” Stallone posted on Instagram (via The Hollywood Reporter ), referring to Winkler, 91, and his allegedly selfish and useless children.

Stallone hints that he would never have let them do a Drago spinoff if he was in charge, adding that he feels sorry for “THE FANS” and “never wanted ROCKY to be exploited FOR THIS GREED.” He also included “#noshame #sadday #Parasite.” (For the record, this same Stallone who never wanted to see Rocky exploited has appeared in six Rocky movies and two Creed movies, which is more of the number of Star Wars films in which Yoda has physically appeared.)

As for why Stallone doesn’t own anything from Rocky, it must be one of those old Hollywood deals where writers and creators get screwed while the producers hang on to the rights (just ask any Marvel Comics writer) because he certainly created the Rocky Balboa character for the first Rocky film.