When Anthony Ippolito was cast as a young Sylvester Stallone for the upcoming 2026 release, Amazon MGM’s biopic I Play Rocky, he seemed like an understandable and fitting choice for this movie in a way that director Peter Ferrelly (of Dumb and Dumber and Balls Up) seemed like a strangely inspired one. But guess what? The first trailer has dropped, and it’s a surprisingly convincing trip back through time, and Ippolito is absolutely aces as its iconic subject, Sylvester Stallone.
As seen in the trailer above, the Purple Hearts star slides right into playing Sylvester Stallone without making it a parody or SNL-esque impression, and while also not just making it a fully Rocky-laden performance. There are layers here. Stal-layers, if you will.
Ippolito has been in the biz for years, but really made a name for himself with his take on a young Al Pacino in the cast of the limited series The Offer, and despite its limited capacity, it was a performance that was arguably better than the show as a whole. So it only makes sense that he could step into Stallone’s in-ring boots and bring the goods for this movie as well. I can only assume he’ll be playing Robert de Niro, John Turturro and Stanley Tucci over the next decade.
2026 marks the 50th anniversary of Rocky’s release, so it’s a fitting time to revisit the inspirational tale of a smalltime actor who believed in himself like no one else would and scripted one of the most classic sports movies of all time, and created one of cinema’s most celebrated underdogs and champions. The character fronted six movies on his own, along with three Creed-centric spinoffs. I doubt we’ll get biopic representations for each of those movies, but Hollywood is unpredictable like that.
Beyond Anthony Ippolito, I’m absolutely loving Stephan James as Carl Weathers, which seems like another spot-on portrayal. (I hope he talks about making a stew, baby, for Arrested Development purposes.) The cast also includes such heavy hitters as Matt Dillon, AnnaSophia Robb, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass, and Kiki Seto.
Peter Farrelly turned in what appears to be quite an inspirational and not-entirely-serious take on the struggles Stallone faced before his meteoric rise to fame on those Philly stairs. I can’t imagine the movie will be entirely free from fart jokes and juvenile humor — this is the guy who made Shallow Hal, after all — but it does look slightly less schmaltzy than Oscar winner The Green Book.
It was written by Peter Gamble, whose most recently produced script was for the 2018 comedy Office Uprising, co-starring Brenton Thwaites, Jane Levy and Zachary Levi. At least his words sound excellent coming out of Ippolito’s mouth, amirite?
I Play Rocky is set for a limited theatrical release starting on November 6, but will then open wide to theaters all over the country later that month. Which possibly means spending Thanksgiving sparring against turkeys hanging in a walk-in freezer. Or not.
