Sylvester Stallone isn't being too sly about this 'Rocky' villain's return

Sylvester Stallone, a movie star who uses third-person hashtags like #SylvesterStallone and #rockybalboa in his own Instagram posts, is about as subtle as a clanging bell. It's why we love him -- and it's also why when he's trying to be coy, it winds up being adorable.

And nowhere in his oeuvre does the Stallone storytelling sledgehammer pound more heavily than Rocky IV, which Stallone directed, wrote, and starred in, making him solely responsible for its heavy-handed patriotism, heavy-handed revenge narrative, and very heavy-handed villain, the Soviet boxer Ivan Drago.

The year was 1985, the Cold War was at its apogee, and the Russians were still cartoon villains. "I will break you," Drago says to Rocky, a not-so-nuanced reminder that Nikita Khrushchev once said "We will bury you" to a roomful of Western ambassadors.

Anyway, the 6-foot-5 Soviet boxer, played by part-time scientist and full-time physical specimen Dolph Lundgren, was easily the hammiest villain of the Rocky franchise, and possibly of the entire 1980s. Our views on Russia have changed since, then changed yet again -- and the Soviet athletic training methods we perceived as oppressively mechanical and soulless have basically become the standard for all competitive sports.

So it's admittedly intriguing as hell to wonder, "What would Ivan Drago look like as, say, the villain of Creed 2?"

GEE, YOU THINK WE MIGHT SOON FIND OUT?

These are just a few of the Instagram posts Stallone has thrown up in the past few weeks featuring Lundgren, who at 59 years old may actually look better than he did in 1985. The man is just that perfect.

But this one ... this one takes the cake:

Stallone is currently writing Creed 2, which may or may not still be on track for a 2018 release (Creed director Ryan Coogler hasn't yet committed, but that won't stop this train from rolling.)

No longer in question: Who Stallone wants the villain to be.

Of course that doesn't mean its happening for sure -- Hollywood moguls are always wishing and hoping, and we the media turn it into "news" -- but Lundgren will be available after filming Aquaman, is in great shape, and it's not like Stallone is HAVING A HARD TIME IMAGINING WHAT CREED 2 WOULD LOOK LIKE WITH HIM IN IT.

It would certainly be juicy for Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan) to face off against the guy who killed his dad (or perhaps the prodigy of this evil former Communist).

Spoiler alert.

H/T Slashfilm