New trailer for Creed fleshes out the drama between Adonis and Rocky

The first trailer for Creed showed a whole lot of promise. Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) has become a new Mickey and Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) is a hungry newcomer to the ring.

This second trailer for Creed reveals the broad contours of Adonis’ and fleshes out the relationship he develops with Rocky, a link of sorts to a father he never knew yet whose legacy he’s living under.

If trailer #2 is any indication, it seems like director/co-writer Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station) will be styling Creed after the original Rocky, building drama around interpersonal relationships culminating in a big fight at the end. There are also direct nods to the Rocky series, as a spin-off does, particularly Rocky II. What’ll be interesting is how Coogler and his co-writer Aaron Covington balance the references to the past with developing Adonis Creed as his own character with his own internal life; and, to that, giving Creed its own personality as a film that’s linked to but distinct from Rocky.

Stallone took a similar back-to-basics, build-around-characters approach to Rocky Balboa, which was a good capper to the series. Sure, the inspirational speeches and touches of melodrama in that film seemed a bit off, particularly since the original Rocky was a really quirky movie and Rocky Balboa was kind of quirk-free, but it was an enjoyable to see the old galoot give it one last go.

Creed will be in theaters November 25, 2015.