The “nefarious” movie that betrayed Sylvester Stallone and he swore he would never watch
If the entire career of Sylvester Stallone was wiped from existence except the Rocky movies, he would still be one of the biggest stars in Hollywood history.
As the star, writer, and sometime-director of the most well-known series of boxing films ever made, he is an integral part of the very makeup of cinema. No matter how ridiculous some of the later ones got.
To date, Stallone has played the ‘Italian Stallion’ in eight different movies; six in the main Rocky series and two entries in the Creed franchise. In the latter, he plays an older version of the former heavyweight champion who coaches Adonis Creed (Michael B Jordan), the son of his former rival-turned-friend, Apollo Creed. 2021 saw the release of the third film in the series, but oddly didn’t feature the Rocky character. This was the first movie in the wider franchise not to have Stallone involved in an on-screen capacity. So, what happened?
The original Rocky movie wouldn’t have happened without Irwin Winkler. He was one of the producers on the project and was one of the key figures who backed Stallone to star in his own creation. He was also influential in the casting of Talia Shire as Adrian. As Stallone explained to Sirius FM host Jessica Shaw in an interview, he sold the rights to Rocky to Winkler for just $100, as he was flat broke at the time. This would have a massive knock-on effect as the series grew bigger and bigger.
Winkler would remain involved with the franchise over the next half-century or so. He was a producer on all three Creed movies and took an active role in shaping the direction of the third film. He and Jordan, who also directed the movie, wanted to take the film in a darker direction. This was the final straw for Stallone, who had finally had enough of the producer taking advantage of his initial hard work.
He referred to Winkler as a “parasite” and said that he was “picking clean the bones” of the series he had helped create. “You can’t make peace with someone who’s been so, so nefarious, in my opinion,” he said (via Men’s Health). “I wrote it. I thought it would be nice to say, ‘Here’s the gesture darling here. Beautiful children, beautiful wife. When I’m long gone, this is you. This is what I made for you.’”
This isn’t the only time Stallone has publicly gone after Winkler – who will celebrate his 95th birthday in May of 2026 – but his stance does raise a few questions. Why break ties with the producer now? Why not years or even decades ago? Was it solely because Creed III was heading in a direction he didn’t like? Were there other forces at play that we don’t know about? Either way, Sly didn’t appear in the film, and Rocky history was made.
Not only did Stallone not work on Creed III, he claims he plans to never watch it out of his hatred for Winkler. This moralistic stance didn’t stop him from taking a producer credit on the movie though and presumably making a decent bit of cash from its success.
