Michael B Jor­dan will make his direc­to­r­i­al debut with Creed III

I[/dropocap]f you’re try­ing to break in to the fea­ture direct­ing game, it helps to already be an A‑list actor with a life­time of indus­try con­nec­tions and a built-in audi­ence that knows your name. That’s how Bradley Coop­er was able to start at the top, com­man­deer­ing a $36 mil­lion bud­get for his direc­to­r­i­al debut A Star Is Born in 2018, and it looks like that’ll be the path for­ward for Michael B Jor­dan in the years to come.

A bul­letin from Vari­ety last night broke the news that Jor­dan will not only return to lead a third install­ment of the Rocky spin­off series Creed, but that the star will also make this new chap­ter of the box­ing saga his first go behind the cam­era. His for­mer costars Tes­sa Thomp­son and Phyli­cia Rashad will both be back as well, though a fresh antag­o­nist to pum­mel our man in the ring has yet to be named.

Though the script for the new film has been writ­ten by Keenan Coogler of the new Space Jam sequel and Zach Baylin of the upcom­ing biopic of Venus and Ser­e­na Williams’ father-coach King Richard, orig­i­nal direc­tor Ryan Coogler also con­tributed to the screen­play. (He gets a ​‘sto­ry by’ cred­it.) The property’s as robust­ly healthy as they come, hav­ing gen­er­at­ed a whop­ping $214 mil­lion last time around, so Jordan’s set­ting him­self up for success.

The Vari­ety item notes that Jordan’s choice to step up and direct mir­rors a sim­i­lar deci­sion from orig­i­nal Rocky star Sylvester Stal­lone, who helmed the sec­ond, third, fourth, and sixth parts in his fran­chise. Jor­dan may be even bet­ter off; an actor mak­ing this tran­si­tion draws on knowl­edge they’ve picked up from watch­ing the director’s they’ve worked with, and he names Coogler and Den­zel Wash­ing­ton (direc­tor of the upcom­ing Jour­nal for Jor­dan) as his major influences.

As an untest­ed tal­ent with every­thing to prove, Jor­dan will share quite a bit of per­spec­tive with young Ado­nis Creed, anoth­er promis­ing young man hun­gry for glo­ry. That raw ambi­tion has made up for a lack of expe­ri­ence on plen­ty of occa­sions in the past – here’s hop­ing he’s not punch­ing above his weight class.

Creed III comes to pre­sum­ably reopened cin­e­mas in the UK and US on 23 Novem­ber, 2022.