For those of you who don’t know, Michael B. Jordan just debuted as the head director in Creed 3, a movie in which he also starred in. Jordan plays the role of Adonis Creed, Jonathan Majors as Damian Sims, Tessa Thomas as Bianca Creed, and Mila-Davis Kent as Amara Creed. Jordan hand-picked Majors for the role of Damian Sims. Two years before filming the movie they had bumped into each other while leaving a party. Jordan also picked Kent because of her “confidence and the light in her eyes, and she’s comfortable in her own skin.” 

Being that Creed is a part of the Rocky franchise, we see a lot of fight scenes. In an interview with IGN, he states that he wanted to, “put his own spin on it.” In this film, Jordan took it upon himself to express his love for anime by capturing it during the fight scenes. He got his inspiration from Hajime no Ippo, Megalo Box, Naruto, My Hero Academia, as well as other anime he watched growing up. He says that there is an “inert spirit to them in how they fight, their bonds, and relationships.” In the many fight scenes throughout the movie, if you pay close attention, you will be able to see where he tried to close in on some of those key moments. In the same interview with IGN, he states that there is a punch that will be thrown by Damian Sims that draws inspiration from the world of the Dragon Ball Z series.

If you’ve watched the previous Creed movies you would know that Adonis’s girlfriend Biannica has progressive hearing loss and later becomes his wife in Creed 2. During Creed 3, we find out that she is also pregnant. Throughout the movie, they worry whether or not their daughter, Amara, will be able to hear. Unfortunately, her hearing is completely gone in this film, which forces Adonis to learn ASL. This also gives Creed 3 a new perspective since Kent is deaf and comes from an ASL family. She was able to embody her role as well and give scenes throughout the movie an opportunity for the ASL community to be recognized.

Being that the focal point of this movie is “you can’t run from your past,” Jordan said this movie is, for him, “a decade in the making in a way.” Jordan reflected that, “those transformative moments while you are a kid and those childhood traumas that you are carrying that may be too painful to look at [or difficult to address] Eventually, it is going to catch up to you if you don’t address it.” In this movie, Jordan accomplishes this by showing men that it is ok to show emotion. Throughout the movie, you will see the progression of a once heartfelt brotherly bond go sour but later turns into a moment of reconciliation for the two men to come to peace with the actions that they held each other accountable for not knowing that they were too young to understand and that some actions weren’t taken because of an inside source.