Michael B. Jordan answers Sylvester Stallone's absence in 'Creed 3'

Creed 3 star Michael B. Jordan explained Sylvester Stallone's absence from the movie.

"First of all, Sly and Rocky's DNA is through this entire franchise," Jordan told HOT97.

"You can't have these movies [without that]. That underdog spirit, I think, connects the underdog in all of us. I think what we love about these movies so much is that we see somebody that's going through hardships, that's able to rise from the ashes and reach the mountaintop, and we connect with that.

For us, we connect with characters that can do the same, and that's what we want to do with Adonis Creed."

Moreover, Jordan also explained that he wanted to focus on Adonis for the third installment.

"I want Adonis to stand on his own two feet," he continued. "In order to do that, we had to go into the past. What were those transformative years, those childhood traumas that shaped [Adonis] today?

I think the room for this story was really about Adonis Creed moving forward with his family and having him move forward. That's kind of how we rolled out the story for this one."