He took the iconic montage scene from Rocky IV and flipped it on its head.
Director Steven Caple Jnr. has some big gloves shoes to fill.
The original Creed was directed by Ryan Coogler to massive success, but he couldn't come back because he was caught up directing Black Panther.
Then there was Sylvester Stallone, who nearly took on directing the sequel himself, but decided to pass it on to some younger blood, taking on directing the upcoming Rambo sequel instead.
Caple Jnr. - much like Coogler when the first Creed came out - only had one small movie under his belt when he took on this project, but there passion and vision is entirely up there on the screen to see.
JOE was lucky to sit down with him in the lead-up to the movie's release, and in between chatting about filling those big shoes, and the difficulty of making a boxing scene original after decades of boxing movies, we had to chat to him about Rocky montages.
As we tell him, we're pretty sure more people have walked on the Moon that have directed a Rocky montage scene, so does the pressure of that weigh on him at all, and is there a certain energy on set knowing that these scenes tend to be hugely iconic?
"Hell yeah, there is a certain energy to it! Man, when you're directing a Rocky montage... for some reason you feel like Rocky invented the montage!
"When we were doing it, it was Sly's idea that we do it in the desert, and then I added all of these workouts and stuff that we wanted to do.
"But there is so much pressure, man. I'm trying to pull stuff from the old Rockys, looking at it like 'Okay, that shot is a long tracking shot, so I want to bring that back', and what did they do in Creed that I can bring into this one? How can I make sure the story is still alive?
"And everyone needs to want to workout after the montage! Or at least go into their office ready to be that guy or that woman. So that was the goal, how big and epic can we make it? How big and jacked can [Michael B. Jordan] get? And Sly bringing that same intensity with the grit in the desert?
"So yeah, it was a combination of things, which I'm hoping people will be excited walking away from."
You can check out our full chat with the director right here:
Elsewhere, you can check out our review of Creed II right here, as well as our chats with Tessa Thompson who discusses female roles, as well as giving the Irish accent a go, (right here), and our exclusive chat with Dolph Lundgren and his on-screen son Florian Munteanu as they talk about the potential Drago spin-off.
Meanwhile, Creed II is in Irish cinemas right now. Check out the trailer here:
Clip via Warner Bros. Pictures
