Creed 3: Jonathan Major’s compares character to Rocky 3’s Clubber Lang

Jonathan Majors has been describing his time making Creed 3, stating he “took a couple” on the chin, and comparing the film to Rocky III, and his character to Clubber Lang.

2023 is a big year for Jonathan Majors. He’s getting great reviews for Sundance title Magazine Dreams. He’s playing the villainous Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. While he’s also entering the ring as the antagonist in Creed III.

Majors’ character is called Damian Anderson in the boxing movie, and he’s a former friend of title character Adonis Creed, played by Michael B. Jordan, who also directs the third film in the trilogy.

The Creed III trailer suggests that their lives went in wildly different directions after childhood, with the film’s story putting them on a collision course in the ring.

Getting punched by Michael B. Jordan

The Creed movies pride themselves on the realism of their fights, and Creed III is no different, as Majors explains when asked if he took many blows to the chin from Jordan.

“I took a couple, I think,” Majors tells Deadline. “I loved it. I’m just so humbled by the opportunity to be a part of the Rocky franchise. Sly, Michael B. Jordan, it’s like, if I’m gonna be in that lineage, even as a baddie, I wanna go for it. So, yeah, [Michael] might have caught me a few times. I took some body shots, and gave out a few, too.”

How Creed 3 is like Rocky 3

Mr. T played antagonist Clubber Lang in Rocky III, a battering ram who proves to be Balboa’s toughest opponent yet. Deadline asked Majors if his Creed 3 character was modeled after Lang.

“It has the DNA of all the Rocky and Creed films, and we’re staying truthful and honest to the legacy of it,” says Majors. “It is the kind of complex relationship we see in life. And as for Clubber Lang? You’ve seen the poster and trailer, so you tell me.”

As for how Adonis and Damian’s history plays into the story, Majors says: “I think it is the intimacy of warriors. It’s a different thing when you, when you know, you’ve hit somebody with everything you’ve got, and they took it, then they hit you with everything they’ve got and you take it. You learn a lot about that other individual.

“Add in the storytelling where Mike and I are mending and melding our emotional lives and our intellect. Like we’re dancing, it’s choreographed, and then he’s pushing the tempo and I’m still in the music. You become so intertwined and become so connected to the other individual that the, the drama in the ring becomes second nature.

“I think Michael B and I, we’re best friends at this point. And I’m not just saying that, I love that guy and he loves me. As director, he also pushed my instrument in a completely different direction, and allowed me to then push him further. It’s a great collaboration. I can’t wait for everybody see that film, to see that relationship.”

Creed III hits screens in March, while this is everything we know about the movie.