Warning: This article contains spoilers for Creed III.Creed III created several different paths for the franchise, but if it wanted a future with the most possibilities, it needed to kill off Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). The capstone of the Creed trilogy was the only film in the Rocky franchise not to include The Italian Stallion after 47 years, instead choosing to focus on Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) retiring from boxing, training the next generation of young boxers, and cultivating a life with his family. Even when everything he'd worked for was jeopardized by the sudden appearance of Damian Anderson (Jonathan Majors), an old childhood friend with a score to settle, Rocky was nowhere to be found.

https://screenrant.com/creed-3-kill-rocky-sylvester-stallone-mistake-future-better/