Ivan Drago was surprisingly absent from Creed 3, but the decision might have secretly helped set up his spinoff movie's story. The Rocky franchise has been reborn in recent years thanks to the Creed movies, and Amazon has plans to expand the MGM property with multiple spinoffs and sequels. One of the first ideas to enter development is Drago, a spinoff movie centered around Dolph Lundgren's Rocky IV villain and his son, Creed 2 foe Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu). Details about the movie's plot have not been revealed since the spinoff was first announced in 2022, but it was thought that Creed 3 could set up the film.

https://screenrant.com/ivan-drago-creed-3-absence-spinoff-story-setup/