Creed II

Creed II
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Steven Caple Jr.
Screenplay by	Juel Taylor Sylvester Stallone
Story by	Sascha Penn Cheo Hodari Coker
Based on	Characters by Sylvester Stallone
Produced by	Irwin Winkler Charles Winkler William Chartoff David Winkler Kevin King-Templeton Sylvester Stallone
Starring	Michael B. Jordan Sylvester Stallone Tessa Thompson Wood Harris Phylicia Rashad Florian Munteanu Dolph Lundgren
Cinematography	Kramer Morgenthau
Edited by	Dana E. Glauberman Saira Haider Paul Harb
Music by	Ludwig Göransson
Production companies	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer New Line Cinema Chartoff-Winkler Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	November 14, 2018 (2018-11-14) (Lincoln Center) November 21, 2018 (2018-11-21) (United States)
Running time	130 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$50 million[2]
Box office	$214.1 million[3]

Creed II is a 2018 American sports drama film directed by Steven Caple Jr. from a screenplay by Juel Taylor and Sylvester Stallone. It is the sequel to Creed (2015) and the eighth installment in the Rocky film series. It stars Michael B. Jordan, Stallone, Tessa Thompson, Wood Harris, Phylicia Rashad, Florian Munteanu, and Dolph Lundgren. In the film, under the continued tutelage of Rocky Balboa (Stallone), Adonis Creed (Jordan) faces off against Viktor Drago (Munteanu), the son of Ivan Drago (Lundgren), who became responsible for the death of Adonis' father Apollo Creed in Rocky IV (1985).

A Creed sequel was confirmed in January 2016, but was delayed because Creed director Ryan Coogler and Jordan faced scheduling conflicts due to their involvement in Black Panther (2018). Coogler was originally replaced by Stallone, who completed the screenplay by July 2017, but he was replaced by Caple that December, with Coogler instead serving as an executive producer. The rest of the cast, including the returns of Thompson, Rashad, and Lundgren, was confirmed by March 2018. Principal photography lasted from March to June, primarily on location in Philadelphia.

Creed II premiered on November 14, 2018, at the Lincoln Center in New York City and was released in the United States by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros. Pictures on November 21. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances (particularly those of Stallone, Jordan, and Lundgren), character development, and Caple's direction, while noting its predictability.^[4] It was also a commercial success, grossing $214 million worldwide.

The sequel, Creed III, directed by Jordan in his directorial debut,^[5] was released March 3, 2023.