Professional Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez has joined the cast of Creed III as was announced on Michael B. Jordan’s Instagram account.
The boxer has been branching out of the boxing ring lately, including trying his hand at professional golf, and now he’s going to grace the silver screen.
Creed III will be directed by Michael B. Jordan himself, who is also returning to the title character of Adonis “Donnie” Creed. It is the sequel to Creed 2 and the ninth installment in the Rocky franchise. This will be Jordan’s directorial debut with the screenplay being written by Keenan Coogler and Zach Baylin.
This casting isn’t the first time a professional boxer has been featured in a Rocky franchise film. Argentine heavyweight boxer Pedro Lovell appeared in the first Rocky movie and Puerto Rican professional boxer Gabriel Rosado was an opponent of Jordan’s character in the first Creed. This will also be the first Rocky film without Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa.
The announcement comes on Mexican Independence Day, which seems like a happy accident or a genius strategy for the Creed III team. Nevertheless, fans certainly appear to be excited to see Álvarez in the film.
Not everyone was excited, especially when they took into consideration the fact that Stallone wasn’t going to be in it.
And some even questioned who Canelo Álvarez was.
Creed III is slated for release on March 3, 2023 and it also stars Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, and Wood Harris.