Rocky needs to have a daughter in Creed.
For all his humour, there is no mistaking the anxious underlay in Creed.
His performance in Creed, though, may be good enough to silence the mockery that has tended to follow him around.
Mr. Stapp, who has two children, quit drinking and drugs, he said, and began thinking about mending fences in Creed.
Michael B Jordan said he "worked out all day, every day, for four to five months" in order to play a boxer in Creed.
Now, with Drago lining up a rematch for his son Viktor in Creed II, the time has never seemed riper for the return of the Russian baddie.
In the best supporting actor category, Mark Rylance delivered a technical knockout to Sly Stallone, up for his sentimentally revered revival of Rocky Balboa in Creed.
The Oscar nominations also left out Michael B Jordan in Creed, Will Smith in Concussion, and Samuel L Jackson in The Hateful Eight.
As a primer for his subtly devastating turn in Creed, Stallone revisited the character who made him famous in 2006's sixth film of the franchise.
Interestingly, in Creed, I was originally down in the script as 'Marcel', but Stallone kept calling me 'Stitch' in the film.
In the early films, Rocky was fighting fellow boxers, but in Creed, his battle is with a far more fearsome opponent: mortality (he is suffering from cancer).
