Sylvester Stallone Drags ‘Rocky’ Producer Irwin Winkler for “Exploiting” His Characters in the ‘Drago’ Spinoff

Sylvester Stallone has the eye of the tiger when it comes to protecting his Rocky franchise, even going as far as slamming “parasite” producers for “exploiting” his characters in the newly-announced spinoff film Drago.

Stallone’s most recent condemnation of the spinoff came on Saturday (July 30) when he took to Instagram to express his outrage over a “94-year-old producer,” seemingly describing the 91-year-old Rocky producer Irwin Winkler.

“Another Heartbreaker… Just found this out… ONCE AGAIN , this PATHETIC 94 year old PRODUCER and HIS MORONIC USELESS VULTURE CHILDREN, Charles And David, are once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me,” Stallone wrote. “I APOLOGIZE to the FANS, I never wanted ROCKY characters to be exploited by these parasites.”

The actor also went on to call out Dolph Lundgren, who played Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, which was written and directed by Stallone, and Creed II, for not telling him about the spinoff.

“By the way, I once had nothing but respect for Dolph but I wish HE had told me what was going on behind my back,” Stallone said. “Keep your REAL friends close.”

Following the post, Lundgren took to the platform to clear the air Sunday night (July 31).

“Just to set the record straight regarding a possible Drago spinoff,” he began. “There’s no approved script, no deals in place, no director and I was personally under the impression that my friend Sly Stallone was involved as a producer or even as an actor. There was a press leak last week which was unfortunate. In touch with Mr Balboa — just so all the fans can relax … There ya go.”

This isn’t the first time Stallone has been vocal over the franchise. In a 2019 interview with Variety, he said he has “zero ownership of Rocky,” despite writing and starring in the original 1976 film that earned three Oscars. He also went on to star in five other Rocky films as well as two Creed spinoffs.

“Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault,” he said. “It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, ‘Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?’ I was furious.”

He brought up the issue again just last month when he posted a photo of Winkler drawn as a serpent on Instagram with the caption, “A very flattering portrait of the great Rocky/Creed producer, Irwin Winkler, from one of the country’s greatest. After Irwin controlling Rocky for over 47 years, and now Creed, I really would like to have at least a little [of] WHAT’S LEFT of my rights back, before passing it on to ONLY YOUR CHILDREN — I believe that would be a fair gesture from this 93-year-old gentleman?”

While this seems to be the continuation of a long road for Sly, it’s certainly not the end for the franchise. Despite not appearing in it, he is listed as a producer for Creed III, which is slated to release in March 2023 and will mark actor Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut.