Tag: Creed III

Jonathan Majors is the most fascinating man in Hollywood (and it’s not close)

Majors has stormed onto the scene, and that’s good news for everyone.

Jonathan Majors is no longer having a moment. He is the moment.

Majors, whose slow-burn rise in Hollywood first spiked with his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Loki (2021), already had an impressive portfolio with critically acclaimed roles in The Last Black Man in San Francisco (2019), Da 5 Bloods (2020) and HBO’s Lovecraft Country (2020) and the incredibly underrated 2022 film, Devotion.

But it wasn’t until 2023 that Majors’ simmering stardom boiled over into full-blown celebrity with highly praised roles as Killian Maddox in the Sundance hit, Magazine Dreams; Kang The Conquerer in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Dame Anderson in his latest box-office success, Creed III.

And it’s only March.

It’s not exaggeration to say Majors is everywhere right now, regularly breaking the internet with a new photo shoot or interview.

Even the United States Army got him.

But it’s not just because of his recent critical and commercial success. Majors is easily most fascinating man (and published poet!) in Hollywood right now and certainly among the most thoughtful when it comes to…just about everything. He’s not afraid to get deep in interviews or explain the thought process behind how he approaches his characters.

“The beautiful thing about what [Majors] does is we spent a lot of time talking about the heart, the feeling, what he’s after, the sort of subtext of his goals … all of those things,” Devotion director J.D. Dillard said of Majors’ process to embody Ensign Jesse Brown, the first Black aviator to complete the Navy’s basic flight training program.

When it came to playing Creed III‘s Dame Anderson, a man seeking a fresh start in the boxing ring after getting out of prison, Majors channeled personal experience. Growing up, Majors ran into his own trouble with shoplifting, school suspensions and even living in his car after getting kicked out of the house.

“I know Dame,” Majors told For the Win. “I could have been Dame, a highly emotional, highly intelligent youth that had some problems.” That familiarity with the character was also built into the physical depiction, showing Anderson as hunched over and covering himself, head on a swivel (as a boxer would).

He’s certainly not the first actor to make for an interesting interview, but in an industry where introspection and emotional intelligence often seem as performative as the movies themselves, it adds to Majors’ allure as someone who doesn’t seem nearly as impressed with himself as the rest of the world is right now. He’s not on social media and won’t watch his own movies, but he’s surprisingly open about what makes him tick, recently telling The Cut he cries often, falls in love daily and has uncomfortably specific tips for executing a flawless breakup.

Perhaps this is why every new detail we learn about Majors makes us want to know more, like the fact that he always carries around a mug after being told by his mother to protect himself growing up. “Now it means mind your cup,” Majors explained on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “You’re a vessel. Nobody can fill you up. Nobody can pour you out. You do that yourself.”

He always walks around with a portable speaker, a move that inspired Michael B. Jordan to use two Nipsey Hussle songs as his character’s walk-in music in Creed III.

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One thing’s for sure: Majors isn’t going anywhere. He’s already locked in for at least two more Marvel movies as Kang and is slated to play Dennis Rodman in an upcoming film about the notorious NBA star.

He’s going to be a star for a very long time. And the world will be watching.

Why Sylvester Stallone doesn’t even make a cameo appearance in Creed III, explained

What a strangely tense situation behind the scenes.

As Creed III opens to roaring praise during its opening weekend, with 2023 Oscars presenters Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors squaring off, one notable absence looms large in the latest entry in the Rocky franchise. (You should read Caroline Darney’s terrific review about how Jordan’s directorial debut unfolds.)

Sylvester Stallone — the man who penned the original 1976 Best Picture film, its ensuing five sequels, and had been in all eight preceding entries — does NOT appear in the latest chapter of Adonis Creed’s saga.

For the most part, as the series starts to veer more toward Creed’s story, Stallone’s absence isn’t all that noticeable. But for someone who quite literally created this fictional boxing world to not even make a short cameo is … a little jarring.

The situation is also a bit more complicated than it lets on. Let me explain.

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Creed III sets record for biggest-ever box office opening for a sports movie

Creed III set a box office record for sports movies this weekend.

Creed III punched its way into record books this weekend at the box office.

With an estimated $58.6 million box office tally, the Michael B. Jordan-directed sequel notched the biggest-ever opening weekend for a sports movie in film history.

It’s a massive win for the box office and for Creed III, which earned stellar reviews and also gave the Rocky/Creed franchise its best-ever weekend at the multiplex.

Even without longtime franchise star Sylvester Stallone appearing in this latest installment, Creed III is setting itself up to be one of the real financial successes of 2023 so far. It’s clearly going the distance in theaters right now.

What’s also fascinating is that Creed III co-star Jonathan Majors is making bank with his Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania leading the box office the past two weeks ahead of the latest Creed film.

Majors is having quite a moment.

For those who haven’t hopped into the ring with Creed III yet, our Caroline Darney says the film is “a worthy entry into the series.”

Creed III is playing nationwide in theaters now.

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Creed III director Michael B. Jordan explains what makes the perfect training montage

What makes the best Creed montage?

In the 1985 boxing classic, Rocky IV, there is a training montage that spans roughly eight minutes of the movie (not counting the brief conversation between Rocky Balboa and his wife in the middle). It depicts the intense workouts of both the American Balboa and the Russian Ivan Drago, highlighting the stark disparity between the technology available to each.

For Balboa, it’s a wooden shack in the frozen Russian tundra. He uses the barn for pull-ups and crunches. He pulls plows. He chops trees. He runs laps in the track cleared for the minimal traffic that comes through (mainly the black sedans of the agents watching him train).

For Drago, it’s all about the future. Doctors watch every crunch. Laps are run around a sterile track. He lifts only the heaviest and newest weights. There’s like a climbing device of some sort.

All throughout we’re serenaded with synth pop and “Hearts on Fire” by John Cafferty. It can only be described as art.

While the Rocky IV montage is perhaps the most ridiculous workout sequence in the series, they’ve become part of the franchise’s identity. In 2015’s Creed — the first of a now-trilogy with the release of Creed III on March 3 — the montage was reborn.

Michael B. Jordan plays Adonis Creed in the trilogy, the son of Rocky’s enemy-turned-friend (or frenemy if you will) that he is trying to avenge in the fight that required the aforementioned training. Creed’s montage starts in the hospital where Adonis is helping Balboa go through chemotherapy and ends in the oh-so-influential streets of Philadelphia.

It’s emotional. It’s impressive. It’s motivating. It shows that while this boxing match against “Pretty” Ricky Conlan is looming, it’s not the only thing important to him.

In 2018’s Creed II, Adonis goes back to the basics as they take a page out of Balboa’s book to beat a Drago (this time Ivan’s son, Viktor). Once again a Drago looks overly prepared with training, as our underdog has to overcome heat, exhaustion, ice baths and that moment of helplessness where it feels so pointless to continue.

So what exactly goes into making a sports montage — specifically one in the Creed series — the best possible?

“It has to kinda relate to what the character is going through in the story,” Jordan — who made his directorial debut with Creed III — said in an interview with For the Win. “What’s going on outside the ring, you have to tie that in somehow. What does he learn in the montage that he needs to learn about life? That he needs to learn about the fight?”

In Creed III, Creed must fight his former best friend and boxing idol, Dame Anderson (played by the remarkable Jonathan Majors), and his montage reflects his slow growth out of retirement. He’s surrounded by friends and family as he trains, in stark contrast to the lonely and clinical prep of Anderson.

Don’t fret, however. It’s not all feelings and growth in the most recent montage. He also pulls a small plane.

Creed III is out in theaters nationwide on Friday, March 3.

Michael B. Jordan delivers a knockout in his directorial debut with Creed III

Jonathan Majors and Michael B. Jordan shine in the latter’s directorial debut.

Friday, March 3, Adonis Creed returns to the boxing ring as Creed III hits theaters. The third in the series, Creed III is lighter on the nostalgia than its two preceding films. And that’s probably a good thing.

Don’t get me wrong. The callbacks to the Rocky movies in Creed and Creed II are fantastic and what got this franchise off the ground. Creed III, which is the directorial debut of Michael B. Jordan, proves that it’s more than just a play on your emotions with a kick-ass theme song from 1976.

In fact, this is the first movie of the nine-entry franchise that doesn’t include Sylvester Stallone.

Creed III is a story about boxing, yes, but it’s more so a story about friendship, diverging paths and losing your identity. At the end of his illustrious boxing career, Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) finds a new role in retirement running his gym and training a new generation of fighters.

His wife Bianca (the flawless Tessa Thompson) has moved from performing her music to producing for other artists as her hearing has continued to decline. Their daughter, Amara (the fantastic Mila Davis-Kent), is thriving even if she sometimes takes after her father by using her fists to solve problems. Mary-Anne Creed (the incomparable Phylicia Rashad) is still the maternal backbone of the family.

But, as you’d expect, things change and evolve. Enter Damian “Dame” Anderson, the childhood friend and boxing mentor of Adonis. Played by Jonathan Majors, Dame shows up at Creed’s gym after a stint in prison and is looking to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming the champ.

This sets a path where Creed has to un-retire to defeat Anderson, who has found success in the ring after working his way from sparring partner of Creed’s champ Felix Chavez (Jose Benavidez) to stealing his belt.

Eli Ade/MGM via AP

Majors is phenomenal and an absolute force on screen. His chemistry with Jordan is electric, his physical acting is incredible and his ability to emote is truly unlike any star currently on screen.

As a director, Jordan should get credit for drawing such performances from his characters. As an actor, Jordan delivers. An emotional scene between him and Rashad later in the film will have audiences in tears, and it’s evident the relationships forged in the first two movies of the series helped make Creed III the best it could be.

“There’s so much trust and there’s an easy communication between the two of us; we just know each other so well,” Tessa Thompson said of Jordan going from co-star to co-star plus director. “I don’t know if I’ve worked with a director that I’ve known as well or that has known me as well, so that was kind of a trip. It also felt really natural, like it didn’t really feel like much changed, to be honest.”

Jordan immersed himself in the details of his movie, from hand-picking Los Angeles sports paraphernalia and art for Creed’s basement to carefully composing the epic training montage we’ve grown to know and love in this franchise.

“I take the blame for everything,” Jordan said with a laugh when it came to explaining decisions like having Creed pull a Cessna during one such montage. “That’s on me, too.”

Creed III isn’t a perfect movie, but it doesn’t have to be. It tells the story of two young men, the way life can change in an instant and the power of relationships. It’s a worthy entry into the series.

You can catch Creed III in theaters nationwide.

Jonathan Majors keeps breaking the internet with photo shoots

Most Americans have two questions on their mind: who is Jonathan Majors and how can I look at him more? We got you.

With both Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania and Creed III hitting theaters over the next couple of weeks, many Americans have two questions on their minds: Who is Jonathan Majors and how can I look at him more?

You’re in luck, because in addition to being one of the most photogenic men in America, Majors is also one of the most photographed men in America as of late, posing for basically every major publication that still does photoshoots, including EBONY, Men’s Health and The Cut.

So whenever you see Majors trending on Twitter, don’t worry — he’s probably fine! All it means is there are new photos of him, a gift to the internet at large, and we have the privilege of seeing him again! But with different clothes and props and backdrops!

Anyway, enough talking. Here is Jonathan Majors.

Canelo Alvarez will meet Michael B. Jordan in Creed III (after he’s done with GGG)

A pair of trilogies for Canelo.

One of the biggest boxing series of the century is gearing up for a 2023 return. Filming for Creed III is underway and it ought to be as good as the first two installations.

One edge the trilogy might have over Creed I and II is casting. While Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson are set for a return, there’s a real-life boxer apparently going to make a cameo, at the very least.

That boxer? Canelo Alvarez.

Jordan, who plays the lead role of Adonis Creed, revealed on Instagram a picture of himself and Alvarez with a caption that indicates Alvarez’s involvement in the upcoming film.

Speaking of trilogies, Canelo is a part of another one that comes much sooner.

On September 17th, he’ll face Gennady Golovkin in the ring for the third time. The first bout between the two resulted in a draw, and the second was a majority-decision win for Alvarez.

As we head into the third bout, Canelo opens up as a huge favorite (-650 at Tipico Sportsbook).

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