Before Butkus enters his life, Rocky is already a confirmed pet owner with two turtles, Cuff and Link. He’s so proud to show them off to Adrian, who just happened to sell them to him on her first day of work. But you might be surprised to learn that the two crawling reptiles lived long enough for a quick cameo in “Creed II.” Sylvester Stallone delivered the great news in a 2018 Instagram post, where it looks like they hadn’t aged a day.
If there’s any animal in show business that’s going to make it over four decades, it might as well be a species with a long lifespan expectancy. With Adrian (Talia Shire) and Paulie (Burt Young) canonically dead in the “Rocky” universe, the two reptiles are among the only remnants from the first film that have made it to see the boxer successfully usher in a new heavyweight champion. Given Stallone’s absence from the upcoming “Creed III,” we likely won’t see any more of Cuff and Link beyond updates from Stallone’s social media accounts. There hasn’t been any confirmation that they’re still swimming, but I like to think that they’ll outlive us all.
“Creed III” arrives in theaters on March 3, 2023.