Dolph Lundgren has responded after Sylvester Stallone called him out for being part of the new Rocky spin-off without telling him.
Last week it was leaked that a script for a movie about Ivan Drago and his son Viktor (Florian Munteanu) is in the works that would see Lundgren return to the role he first played in Rocky IV in 1985.
Lundgren returned as Drago in Creed II, which saw Ivan's son take on Apollo Creed's (Carl Weathers) son Adonis (Michael B Jordan) in a pair of dramatic boxing bouts.
Viktor Drago is already confirmed to return for Creed III, due to release next year, but the father and son team look set for their very own movie.
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However, Stallone has been unhappy with the news of the Rocky spin-off, taking to Instagram to vent his frustrations at Irwin Winkler and his sons Charles and David, who own the rights to the Rocky franchise.
Stallone accused the producers of 'once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me', he called out Lundgren to ask why his long time friend and co-star hadn't told him about the project.
The Rocky star and creator said Lundgren 'NEVER told me about what was going on behind my back with the character I created for him', though he later edited his posts to remove the call out to his co-star.
The posts from Stallone now appear to have been deleted, and it may be because Lundgren himself took to Instagram to set the record straight.
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Sharing a picture of the pair of them playfully posing together, he explained that any Drago movie is in the early stages of development and that he thought Stallone was involved in some way.
The actor wrote: "Just to set the record straight regarding a possible Drago spinoff.
"There’s no approved script, no deals in place, no director and I was personally under the impression that my friend Sly Stallone was involved as a producer or even as an actor.
"There was a press leak last week which was unfortunate. In touch with Mr Balboa - just so all the fans can relax…There ya go."
With Lundgren's explanation and Stallone deleting first the callout to him and then the entire posts it seems as though the pair might have cleared up this misunderstand and buried the hatchet.
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Where this leaves a future Drago spin-off movie is unclear, as Lundgren pointed out that there were no deals in place and no finished script for the movie.
The Drago script is currently being penned by Robert Lawton, who got the job after his script for Becoming Rocky won a 2021 Nicholl Fellowship.
Topics: Sylvester Stallone, TV and Film, Celebrity
Joe Harker