Dolph Lundgren says he thought 'friend' Sylvester Stallone was involved in 'Rocky' spinoff after being accused of 'going behind' his back

• Dolph Lundgren has responded to Sylvester Stallone's criticism of a new "Rocky" spinoff.
• Lundgren said the movie, centered around his antagonist Ivan Drago, is still early in production.

Dolph Lundgren said that he had no idea that Sylvester Stallone was not involved in the upcoming "Rocky" spinoff after Stallone accused him of going behind his back.

On Sunday, Stallone hit out against "Rocky" producer Irwin Winkler and Lundgren in two now-deleted Instagram posts, after it was reported that there may be another spinoff in the franchise involving his longtime friend, who played antagonist Ivan Drago in both "Rocky IV" and "Creed 2."

In his post, Stallone said he only found out about the possible "Drago" movie online and added that he was surprised that Lundgren never told him "what was going on behind my back with the character I created for him."

Lundgren has responded with his own Instagram post, saying that he is now in touch with Stallone.

"Just to set the record straight regarding a possible Drago spinoff," he captioned a photo of him with Stallone. "There's no approved script, no deals in place, no director and I was personally under the impression that my friend Sly Stallone was involved as a producer or even as an actor."

He added: "There was a press leak last week which was unfortunate. In touch with Mr Balboa - just so all the fans can relax…There ya go."

Stallone's deleted posts were mainly directed at Winkler and his children, whom Stallone is currently fighting over the rights to the "Rocky" franchise, after portraying the lead character Rocky Balboa in all six "Rocky" films and the two recent "Creed" spinoff movies.

"ONCE AGAIN, IRWIN WINKLER, this PATHETIC 94-year-old PRODUCER and HIS MORONIC VULTURE CHILDREN, Charles And David, are once again picking clean THE BONES of another wonderful character I created without even telling me," the 76-year-old actor captioned one post.

In 2019, Stallone revealed in an interview with Variety that he was "furious" when he found out he had "zero ownership" of the "Rocky" franchise, as he hoped to leave an equity stake for his children after his death.

"Every word, every syllable, every grammatical error was all my fault," Stallone told Variety. "It was shocking that it never came to be, but I was told, 'Hey, you got paid, so what are you complaining about?'