‘Creed III’ composer Joseph Shirley: It was a ‘full circle moment for me’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Composer Joseph Shirley has experienced a lot of success over the last couple of years, including writing the scores for Star Wars shows “The Book of Boba Fett” and Season 3 of “The Mandalorian.” But composing music for “Creed III” was a “full circle moment,” Shirley tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview because he had worked alongside composer Ludwig Goransson on the first two “Creed” films as an assistant.

“What we wanted to do with ‘Creed III’ was to build out its texture and flavor and sound in the score that, at times, maybe is self-referential to other ‘Creed’ movies but still takes a step forward in pushing that that ‘Creed’ sound along,” Shirley says. 

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The third film in the blockbuster “Rocky” franchise included many firsts beyond just Shirley’s ascendance to the title of composer. “Creed III” marked the directorial debut of star Michael B. Jordan and is also the first “Rocky” or “Creed” film without Sylvester Stallone in a starring role. The action also shifted to Los Angeles, away from the familiar streets of Philadelphia. Shirley says Jordan was a driving force behind much of the film, including the way the score should enhance the storytelling and characters.

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“Michael was all there for it. He wanted to go for it in certain ways and just how ambitious he was with what the music could do with this movie was special as a composer to work with somebody like that,” Shirley says. “So there are many key areas where I think we sort of took it and ran with it and stepped away from the known ‘Rocky’ sound and ‘Creed’ sound and made our own impact on the story.”

“Creed III” features its title character at a crossroads, retired from competitive boxing and training new fighters at his family gym. But when a former friend from his past returns, Adonis Creed (Jordan) is forced to get back into the ring one last time.

“There is shared trauma between these two guys,” Shirley says of Adonis and his former pal, Damian Anderson (played by Jonathan Majors). “You sort of sympathize with Dame and you don’t know who you’re rooting for when they step into the ring together. That’s one of those exciting moments. So we wanted to connect with Damian as a character and connect with that backstory, as well as knowing that Adonis is our hero.”

For Dame’s theme, Shirley says he leaned into the mystery, intrigue, and heartbreak of the character – and even was able to visit a closed prison in New Orleans to research the sounds Dame might have heard while serving jail time.

“That sort of informed some of the edgier percussion sounds that you hear when he’s on screen,” Shirley says.

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In addition to Dame, Shirley was also responsible for introducing a new theme for Amara, Adonis’ daughter, as well as an elegy for Mary Anne (played by Phylicia Rashad), whose character dies in “Creed III.” But despite all the new work, Shirley’s biggest challenge, perhaps, was finding a way to call back to the legendary Bill Conti “Rocky” music in a way that felt organic and natural.

“We needed to be self-referential to other Creed movies, and you know, sort of reference the, those iconic things we spoke of. But as soon as Adonis wins that final boxing match, it’s so tough to not really want that classic ‘Going the Distance’ theme,” Shirley explains. “So we did jump into a bit of the theme there. It’s what you want – you’re just looking for that and that’s the flavor of these movies. So we did, we did jump around with a couple of the well-known themes here and there. But I would say overall, it’s more of a produced or contemporary sound. And, you know, we just had such a fun time with it.”

“Creed III” from MGM is streaming now on Amazon Prime Video.

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