Dolph Lundgren is doubtful that Sylvester Stallone has really retired his iconic character Rocky Balboa.
Lundgren, 61, like everyone else was surprised that his friend Stallone, 72, took to Instagram on Wednesday (28.11.18) to announce that his appearance as the iconic boxer in ‘Creed II’ would be his last outing following eight movies which began with Best Picture Oscar winning film ‘Rocky’ in 1976.
Lundgren – who reprises his role as Russian fighter Ivan Drago from 1985’s ‘Rocky IV’ in ‘Creed II’ – thinks that Stallone might still return to Rocky one more time.
Speaking to talkRADIO about the apparent retirement at the movie’s European premiere at the BFI Imax in London last night, the ‘Universal Soldier’ actor said: "I don’t know, I’ll believe it when I see."
‘Aquaman’ star Lundgren was thrilled to get the chance to return as Ivan Drago and show a different side to the infamous in-ring villain, who in ‘Creed II watches as his son Viktor Drago fights Adonis Creed, the son of late former heavyweight champion Apollo Creed whom Ivan Drago killed in the ring.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: "It was fantastic, just to be here and see all these people and realise that the character was such a badass back in the 80s and killed Apollo and did all those bad things, people seem to latch onto something about him that now is a springboard to play him as a real person, as a real man with a lot of regular problems like we do with our kids…"
Lundgren thinks that his co-star Florian Munteanu – who plays his son Viktor Drago – was a great choice for the role because of his rare mix of physical strength and "boyish" softness.
He gushed: "When I met Florian I immediately knew he was a great choice because his physique, his look, he was very hard looking but he had a soft kind of boyish side, that I think I had when I was his age too."