Rocky Is Back But Not As You Think In 'I Play Rocky'

It's difficult to look at Sylvester Stallone now and imagine a time when Hollywood didn't particularly want him. But that is exactly where I Play Rocky begins. The film follows Stallone during the period when he was still a struggling actor trying to break through. He eventually wrote the screenplay that would become Rocky, but selling it came with one enormous condition. Stallone wanted to play Rocky Balboa himself. Studios were interested in the screenplay, but the unknown actor attached to it was another matter entirely. Stallone refused to give up the role, betting his future on the belief that nobody else should play the character he'd created. Peter Farrelly has described Stallone's real-life journey as essentially a Rocky story: a man nobody expected to win, refusing to quit until somebody finally gave him a chance. We all know what happened next. Rocky arrived in 1976 and became a phenomenon, earning ten Academy Award nominations and winning three, including Best Picture. Stallone didn't simply get his opportunity. He created one of cinema's most enduring characters.

Taking on Sylvester Stallone would be intimidating enough. Playing Stallone during the making of one of the most recognisable films in cinema history is something else entirely. Anthony Ippolito spent more than a year preparing physically for the role and has spoken about the nerves he felt before he eventually met Stallone. The two spoke before filming, with Stallone offering Ippolito insight into that period of his life. Ippolito isn't entirely new to portraying famous figures either. He previously played a young Al Pacino in the Paramount+ series The Offer. But I Play Rocky puts him firmly in the ring. Rather than portraying the polished movie star audiences have known for decades, Ippolito has said he concentrated on the younger Stallone — the hungry actor who hadn't yet become famous and was still trying to convince people that he belonged. It's an important distinction. This isn't Rocky-era Stallone looking back at his career. It's about the man who had no idea whether there would even be a career to look back on.

One review of I Play Rocky probably mattered more to Peter Farrelly than any other. Sylvester Stallone's. Farrelly recently revealed that Stallone watched the finished movie privately — something that understandably left the director nervous. He didn't have to wait long for the verdict. According to Farrelly, Stallone called him immediately after watching the film and responded positively to what he'd seen. Stallone has also publicly supported the project. Considering the film dramatises one of the most important periods of Stallone's life, that's a fairly significant seal of approval. It also means I Play Rocky isn't arriving as some unwanted retelling being made while its subject watches from a distance. Stallone knows exactly what they've made. And apparently, he likes it.

Naturally, Stallone isn't the only real person recreated in the film. Stephan James plays Carl Weathers, the actor who would become immortalised as Apollo Creed, while AnnaSophia Robb plays Stallone's first wife, Sasha Czack. P.J. Byrne portrays producer Irwin Winkler, Toby Kebbell plays producer Robert Chartoff and Jay Duplass appears as Rocky director John G. Avildsen. Matt Dillon also joins the cast as Stallone's father, Frank Stallone Sr. That gives I Play Rocky an opportunity to do something particularly appealing for movie fans. We're not simply watching a character come to life. We're watching the pieces of a classic movie gradually come together. The casting. The producers. The locations. The compromises. The arguments. And ultimately the moment a relatively small production becomes something nobody involved could possibly have fully predicted.

I Play Rocky has now had its world premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, where it received an enthusiastic response. Early critical reaction isn't unanimous — and frankly, it would be suspicious if it were — but several reviews have singled out Ippolito's transformation and the film's crowd-pleasing recreation of Stallone's rise. The premiere reportedly received an enthusiastic reception, and the film is already attracting awards-season discussion. That feels strangely appropriate. A movie about people taking a chance on an unknown Sylvester Stallone is now introducing audiences to another young actor tasked with convincing them he can be Sylvester Stallone. You couldn't really make it more Rocky if you tried.

Hollywood has spent years returning to successful franchises. Sometimes it works. Sometimes you wonder why anybody bothered. I Play Rocky is different. It doesn't need to invent another fight for an ageing Rocky Balboa. It doesn't need to reboot the original or find some previously unknown boxer who happens to be Apollo Creed's second cousin. The story was sitting there all along. Because the extraordinary thing about Rocky is that its creation reflected the movie itself. A man without much money or influence gets an unlikely opportunity. Everyone expects him to fail. He refuses to walk away. He doesn't necessarily need to become the greatest — he needs the chance to prove he belongs. Rocky Balboa and Sylvester Stallone were never quite the same person. But it's easy to understand why Stallone knew he had to play him. Fifty years later, Hollywood is finally making a movie about that fight. And this time, Rocky isn't the underdog. Sylvester Stallone is. I Play Rocky will arrive in US cinemas in November 2026, timed almost exactly 50 years after the original Rocky reached theatres.