INTERVIEW: Creed 3’s Keenan Coogler Reveals Fullmetal Alchemist Inspiration and the Lasting Power of Anime Storytelling

 

Keenan Coogler, much like Creed 3 director and star Michael B. Jordan, isn’t shy about how anime inspired his work on the movie’s screenplay. After all, this entry into the boxing franchise wears its inspiration on its sleeve. 

 

“The first thing me and Mike talked about is this idea called “The Warrior in the Garden,” Coogler said. “Basically, the idea is the episodes where, you know, if it’s Dragon Ball Z, wherever the protagonist overcomes the big villain, there’s always those episodes after where he’s just in the house chilling.”

 

The cooldown from the big fight. Crunchyroll had a chance to speak with Coogler ahead of the Hollywood premiere for Creed 3 and he broke down how the structure of anime directly influenced the narrative at the core of the film.

 

“He’s like a bull in a China shop. When it’s Goku, he would rather train with Gohan than help him with his math homework. He just doesn’t do well when there’s no threat coming,” Coogler said. “We were like…that’s Adonis.”

 

RELATED: Michael B. Jordan Shares His Anime Inspiration With Crunchyroll at Creed 3 Premiere

 

Coogler said he and Jordan found themselves coming off of a big movie, feeling like an athlete that hadn’t “been punched in a while,” going into Creed 3. Coogler took on writing duties following not just the events of Creed II, but the screenplay from his brother, Ryan Coogler, who wrote and directed the first Creed (with Aaron Covington), and original Rocky creator Sylvester Stallone, who wrote Creed II (with Juel Taylor).

 

“Adonis is this character where his mechanisms are saving the world, but when there’s no threat, they destroy his. So “The Warrior in the Garden” is where we wanted to put Adonis,” Coogler said. 

 

 

This new place for Adonis mirrors the “calm before the storm” moments of early Dragon Ball Z.

“If you watch the first scene when Amara [Creed’s daughter] wakes up. That’s a very Gohan scene,” Coogler said. “And then, the structure of the story, in creating the antagonist, Dame [Jonathan Majors] is as anime as it gets. That’s Raditz from Dragon Ball Z.”

 

Unlike Raditz, Dame isn’t just a villain. Dame, Coogler said, mirrors antagonists that come across the line, like in Naruto.

 

“We knew that this was going to be one of those villains,” Coogler said. “He was a character who, as soon as you introduce him, he’s there to establish how powerful Adonis can be or was. It’s a hierarchy system that happens in anime.”

 

This relationship between Dame and Creed is at the core of this story, right down to the “special language” the two have while they fight.

 

“What I love about anime storytelling is the characters will convey different emotions than in a film. Like Ed and Al [from Fullmetal Alchemist] have a different shorthand. They often talk to each other about difficult things,” Coogler said. “But Adonis and Damien are Black, and we don't have that space. So it was cool to put these characters in this sort of setting to where it's like, these dudes have a language that they speak, but it's a language born of violence, and the world doesn’t understand that.”

 

 

Coogler called back to characters like Naruto and Sasuke or Goku and Vegeta, who are “like best friends, but they’re only happy when they’re fighting each other.” In this, Coogler said they wanted to unpack that concept of toxic masculinity through the lens of these Black characters in America.

 

“America is a very specific setting just like, in anime, the setting is very key,” Coogler said. “Anime storytelling is all very legacy-based. You know, your family’s legacy and what they do is very important. In America, it’s not the same, but we have characters who stand for those things.”

 

In Creed 3, Coogler leveraged this setting as the backdrop to tell an “intimate story about two guys that share that language.”

 

“The fact that they fight and it’s kinetic, Coogler said. “I think it makes anime very tangible.”

 

RELATED: Michael B. Jordan Channeled Anime to Put His Spin on Creed 3 Fights

 

Of course, before diving into the movie ourselves, we had to ask Coogler what his favorite anime of all-time was. He mentioned a handful, including classics like Samurai Champloo, but then he narrowed it down.

 

“Fullmetal. Bebop. And I think, as a Black man, Dragon Ball Z is very integral to my culture,” Coogler said. “My older brother put me on it. He was like, this is what we watch. And I think what makes Black boys love it so much is that it’s about fistfights. When you were 8 and 10 years old and live in specific places and you can turn on a show and the characters fight each other and it’s fine, and nobody goes to jail. It’s actually fun to watch. It’s an escape.” 

 

Coogler left us with one last note, that it’s important to see ourselves in anime, and how it all came together in his work on Creed 3 and his process with Michael B. Jordan.

 

“Anime storytelling allows for really strong audience surrogates. And that’s what Mike put me on the most. He said, ‘these stories work for these kinds of characters.’” 

 

Creed 3 is now in theaters and stars Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Majors, Tessa Thompson and Wood Harris. The film marks the directorial debut of Michael B. Jordan. 

 

 

This interview was conducted by Crunchyroll Associate Producer Asia Brooks at a press conference ahead of the Creed 3 Hollywood premiere. Crunchyroll Editorial Sr. Manager Nicholas Friedman wrote the article. 

 

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