Dolph Lundgren reassures fans Drago won't break Rocky, says he's 'in touch' with Sylvester Stallone

Though he infamously uttered the words "I must break you" to Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa, as Russian death-puncher Ivan Drago, Dolph Lundgren has no plans to break the legacy of Stallone's beloved boxer franchise.

Over the weekend, Stallone went all Rambo on Rocky producer Irwin Winkler — and his kids — for a reported spin-off of Creed II centering around the Drago family. "I never wanted ROCKY characters to be exploited by these parasites," Stallone said in a since-deleted Instagram post.

Creed was itself a spin-off of the Rocky franchise, in which Michael B. Jordan plays Adonis "Donnie" Creed, son of Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), who was beaten to death in the ring by Drago in Rocky IV. In Creed II, Lundgren reprised his role as a now-disgraced Ivan Drago, training his son Viktor (Florian Munteanu) to break yet another Creed with Stallone as the aged Balboa trying to keep Adonis from meeting his father's fate.

It's been unclear if either Lundgren or Munteanu would return to Drago, though a news report linked Lundgren to the spin-off.

Stallone went on to clarify in his Insta rant that he had no ill will towards Lundgren, he was just disappointed that his Expendables co-star had sucker-punched him with the news.

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

Lundgren then took to the 'Gram to "set the record straight" about Drago, which may or may not even be happening.

"Just to set the record straight regarding a possible Drago spinoff. 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," Lundgren wrote. "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."

Stallone has been very vocal about his wish to overtake control of the franchise, as he does not own the rights to the character he created when he was still a struggling actor/writer on the come-up in Hollywood. Earlier this month, he shared a post in which he called on Winkler to give him what was left of the rights.

"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," Stallone wrote. "I believe That would be a FAIR gesture from this 93 year old gentleman ?"

Winkler is, in fact, 91. He won a Best Picture Oscar for producing the original Rocky and has had a hand in producing every film in the franchise since.

Regardless, Stallone and Jordan will be reprising their roles once again in Creed III, punching its way into theaters March 3 of next year.

As for Drago, Ivan and Viktor sound like they could use a whacky buddy road trip comedy to really work on their need to break other people and maybe, just maybe, break into each other's hearts.

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