Creed 2 finds its 'son of Ivan Drago'

Creed 2 has cast its villain, and he’s got a surname that will send shivers down the spine of Rocky IV fans…

Drago.

Romanian boxer Florian ‘Big Nasty’ Munteanu has signed up for the sequel to 2015 boxing hit Creed.

He will play Vitor Drago, the son of Ivan Drago, the Russian man-machine who was played by Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV.

Sylvester Stallone bigged up the latest casting with a post on Instagram, captioning: “Congratulations to Florian ‘Big Nasty’ Munteanu for getting the part as IVAN DRAGOS son! 27 years old, 6 feet four, 245 pounds of talent.”

Pitching up the potential drama with an existing plot from the original Rocky movies, it was Ivan Drago who killed Apollo Creed (played by Carl Weathers), father of Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis Creed, in the ring, back in 1985.

So there’s a pretty steely grudge already in place for Adonis and Vitor to thrash out.

Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa will, of course, be found in Adonis’s corner once more, while Lundgren is currently in training to reprise his role as the mountainous former Soviet slugger.

Filming is expected to begin in Philadelphia in March, with Steven Caple Jr taking over from Ryan Coogler behind the camera.

A release date is set for November 21, 2018.

Read more
Mark Wahlberg donates to Time’s Up campaign
Eliza Dushku says she was molested on True Lies set, aged 12
Rebecca Hall ‘regrets’ working with Woody Allen