Who Was the Villain in Creed III?

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Who Was the Villain in Creed III?

Creed III has stormed into the cinema this week seeing Adonis taking on a new opponent. Over the years, Rocky and Adonis have always needed to overcome bigger odds, with their opponents often seen as the villains of the movie. Adonis has previously taken on the hot-headed Ricky Conlan and the son of the man who killed his father Viktor Drago. However, these movies followed Adonis earning respect from his opposition.

The Rocky side of the franchise always portrayed Rocky as somebody reluctant to step into the ring again. He always wanted to step away from the spotlight and was reluctantly brought back. On the other hand, Adonis had the same rise as Rocky, by being put in a title match too early. In Creed II, Adonis took on a personal rival that destroyed his legacy, making it clear Adonis needed to follow a Rocky-like story.

However, in Creed III things take a different turn of events. It gives us a more complex movie that offers up the question, who is the villain of the movie? Today I am going to look at a couple of potential answers.

This Will Contain Spoilers for Creed III.

This is just for fun, in an open discussion style and doesn’t question my overall thoughts on the movie.

Who Was the Villain in Creed III?

Adonis The Promoter

Adonis has retired from the ring and turned into a promoter and manager for fighters out of his gym. His latest talent Felix Chavez is already a world champion and Adonis has set up a fight against his former rival Viktor. In the aftermath of the attack on Viktor, he doesn’t seem to really put in any effort to find a new contender, just throwing his old friend Damian into the fight. He expects Damian to put up a fight but lose quite easily to give his fighter a payday.

This shows that Adonis has stepped into a role where he cares more about the money than the fighters. It puts him in the role of the selfish figure in the movie. He only starts to react more heroically once things go wrong in the promoted fight.

Damian Anderson

Damian is the man that protected Adonis through the foster care system. He took him under his wing and taught him to stand up for himself while showing his boxing talents at a teenage age. Damian loses his future protecting Adonis after he got himself in trouble, seeing his future taken away from him. Could Damian be villain in Creed III?

Once Damian is released from prison, he comes to meet Adonis to ask for an opportunity. While Adonis is reluctant, Damian is pushy and steps up when Adonis needs a fighter. During the world championship fight, we do see a few dirty tactics in play. One that does lead to him losing points, with an elbow clip. We do get to see this one illegal move, but that can be explained by his pure desperation after losing his time. Elsewhere, in the fight, Damian does look to unload punches that could make it hard to fight back, targeting body parts. However, this doesn’t seem to get followed up on. The shots to the shoulder and arm don’t seem to slow the opponents down.

In reality, if the body or arm shots showed a weakened opponent we could say Damian is more of the villain. However, the movie portrays him as a desperate person willing to do anything, rather than a calculated vicious fighter. Post-championship fight, it is revealed he arranged the attack to injure Viktor, showing his darker side. However, in his showdown with Adonis, he is first happy to let the fight happen, but he doesn’t show any dirty tactics in the fight.

Adonis The Fighter

Adonis has a retirement fight against his first professional opponent Ricky Conlan. He finds his retirement frustrating not being able to fill up his free time. Bianca can see him getting bored and it starts frustrating her too. The movie sets everything up for Adonis to want to step back into the ring and Damian gives him the excuse he has been looking for.

This movie does leave us wondering whether Adonis was really ready to retire. It gives us the typical media reports that believe that Adonis got easy final fights and never accepted challenges. Which you feel could have easily motivated him to return to the ring.

Outside of the ring, Adonis has taught his daughter Amara boxing techniques. However, he hasn’t taught her about discipline, making it dangerous she could go down the same road as himself or worse, Damian. Another factor that Bianca challenges him on throughout the movie.

Bianca Creed

Bianca has adapted to her changes in life, she has learned to evolve with her hearing loss. She has stepped away from performing and into producing making a successful career for herself. While this doesn’t make her a villain, her ability to change has clearly left a mark on Adonis’ mindset in the next chapter of his career. She represents all the good in Adonis’ life, which causes tension in him.

There is No Villain

Creed III looks to channel the idea of two former best friends meeting in the ring for a big showdown. They have been down different paths, with Adonis reluctantly using his father’s name to become the biggest name in boxing. Damian went to prison despite his boxing potential and is now ready to take his shot despite his age. This does have a very similar pattern to ‘Warrior’ where we saw two brothers who have different lives meeting in a showdown in the ring.

Creed III presents both as two men that went down different paths. Paths that either of them could have lived if given an equal opportunity. The pair have different styles and you could easily get behind either when it came to watching the fights. This is where the idea that we don’t really have a villain in this movie comes about. We just get two men who want to prove they are the tougher fighter and better boxer.