It’s fairly common for a director to promote their new film – especially one that is a brand new, original story – as “my most personal film.” Now, that’s not to say it’s disingenuous, especially because when you talk to Ryan Coogler, there is absolutely no doubt that Sinners is his most personal film. It’s apparent in how emotional he gets talking about multiple members of his family and the influence each had on the final cut. For example, Coogler’s uncle was a massive Buddy Guy fan. Buddy Guy appears in a small but pivotal role in Sinners. But all of this is a little “besides the point” because, even before I talked to him, it was all up there on the screen anyway. It would be hard to watch Sinners and not realize that the person who made it put everything he had into it and had quite a bit to say. Oh, by the way, this is a movie about vampires.
In Sinners, Michael B. Jordan plays the dual role of twin brothers Smoke and Stack. Set in the 1930s South, the brothers return home after amassing enough money (assumed not by legal means) to open their own juke joint. Sinners is meticulous in setting up this premise. Unfortunately, a vampire named Remmick (Jack O’Connell who one could assume, after watching his performance in this, just might actually be a vampire) is roaming the area and is building himself an army. And this new juke joint has attracted his attention.
Ahead, Coogler gets into the emotional nitty gritty of where this movie came from deep down inside him – even referring to it as something he “had to get off his chest.” Also, it’s no secret Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was, to put it mildly, a fraught experience. Coogler is set to return to direct the third installment, but after the experience on the second film, has he ever questioned if he even wanted to?
‘Sinners’ Is a Love Letter to the Movies

Image via Eli Adé

COLLIDER: How are you doing? Actually, that’s a loaded question these days. I retract that.
RYAN COOGLER: [Laughs] I’m just working, bro. Keeping my head down. I wasn’t going to answer in the macro context.
So, I really loved Sinners. My first question is, when does Sinners 2 come out?
COOGLER: [Laughing] Man, that’s so kind of you to be so presumptuous.
I do want more.
COOGLER: I gave so much to that movie, man. For us – speaking for myself and all the filmmakers involved and all the actors – we formed a family in Louisiana. We gave it everything we had. On this movie, I’m going above and beyond my comfort zone because the movie means so much to me. The experience of going to cinemas and seeing movies with strangers where you don’t know what’s going to happen next. That electrifying feeling so many of us fell in love with. It feels like it’s on the edge of it going away, and this is our own act of raging against that feeling. Having it go out to the world, I feel all the emotions, bro. We laid it all on the line with this.
Of All the Juke Joints in the World…

Image via Warner Bros

I knew the general premise going in, the supernatural element. Halfway through the movie I kind of forgot about it because I was so invested in Smoke and Stack trying to open their juke joint.
COOGLER: What I haven’t had a lot of chance to talk about is my family was part of the Great Migration. What I learned from research and talking to my grandmother — who turns 97 this year — growing up, my family threw a lot of parties. They had an era where they were throwing parties at nightclubs. The whole neighborhood would look forward to these parties. Marriages would get destroyed because of these parties. The fervor around these parties, there are very few movies that can capture that. Lovers Rock, the Steve McQueen film…
Yes, my mind immediately went to that. It came out during the pandemic and I remember watching it when I hadn’t been to a party in months and it was overwhelming.
COOGLER: That movie was also an influence on this one. It’s my favorite film of his. That’s saying something because I really like his movies. People providing a space for people to be their fully authentic selves. I also found out I’m the descendant of bootleggers and also would cook for people who went to these juke joints. My grandmother would make sandwiches for people. These juke joints were so far away in remote locations, they’d need a meal to eat on their way to it.
I found out my grandmother’s first date with my grandfather, who I never met, was at the movies. Me and Zinzi [Coogler], my producer and my wife, our first date was at the movies, Bring It On. That marriage of my love of cinema and for throwing these events, I kind of had a chance to merge them in this movie. So, it feels like a home-cooked meal. My family is also famous for their gumbo. A bucket list thing for me is to learn how to cook it from my mom, my responsibility to carry on this tradition. When people ask me about the multiple genres that are involved in this movie, for me it’s like what my family does. My film version of a home-cooked pot of gumbo – merging it together to make something unique. But, yeah, I put everything into this. And I hope audiences get out of it a good time at the movies. We need that right now.
‘Sinners’ Meaning Is Up to the Audience

Jack O’Connell’s character, Remmick, tries to get Smoke to join the vampires with the promise of diversity, people from all these different ethnicities getting along as vampires. I can see why it’s appealing to Smoke, but it’s an offer based on lies from someone who is soulless and evil. I’m curious what you’re trying to say there, or am I reading too much into that?
COOGLER: No, not at all. The big thing for me, I’ve never been more excited to put a movie out. Because this movie, I want people to own it. The thing about filmmaking is, once we make it, it belongs to the audience. The thing is, it’s yours now, Mike. If that’s what you see in that scene, that’s what you’re seeing. For me, the Faustian deal is what I was obsessed with. That was the mindset I was in when I was making this movie.
My uncle was my introduction to the blues, man. He was one of the most important people in my life. He was from Mississippi, born and raised there, and his house was walking distance from mine. I would sit with him and listen to these records and spend time with him because I thought he was cool. There were these tall tales, bro. I thought he was spinning a big fish. I would learn later on all of his stories were true. He died in 2015, he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. And the whole year I was gone making Creed. I was living out my dream being a filmmaker, but it cost me time with my family. I was at a post-production facility in Los Angeles when I learned that he died and I felt like shit. Even though I knew he wanted me to fulfill my dream – he would encourage me to go out and do these things — and I thought about the deal that is the pursuit of a dream. You have to inherently say goodbye to things that you love.
And vampirism is often associated with the gift and the curse. You get the gift of immortality, but the world that you know, if they aren’t vampires, they die. You become this undead thing. And I was very interested in Southern culture, the bartering, the negotiation, and the desperation that comes with being in an eternally fucked position in society. And for human ears, Remmick is very capable of making an attractive argument to these people. So, I think you’re picking up on the same things we were thinking about as filmmakers.

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When you mentioned, having now seen it, it’s my movie now… look, I don’t know how your 401k is doing this past week…
COOGLER: [Laughing]
So that’s very generous. I wasn’t expecting this, I look forward to the profits.
COOGLER: Yeah, I’ll send you over the paperwork, bro.
There’s a scene involving Buddy Guy and Michael B. Jordan, who’s wearing the greatest sweater I’ve ever seen.
COOGLER: [Laughs] Ruth [E. Carter] did an incredible job. And that’s one of the things about vampirism, they’ve got to look cool. It’s one of the unwritten rules and we wanted to fill out the prerequisite.
What led you to casting Buddy Guy?
COOGLER: It was a dream come true for me. Buddy Guy was an artist my uncle would still go see live. He’d get dressed up and go see him when Buddy Guy came to town. That was my entry point into Buddy, the fact that my uncle loved him. What I learned was he was the last surviving guy from that era that my uncle could go see live. And he would go see him live; live music mattered to my uncle. This film led me to interrogate all those reasons, man. Why?
As a man approaching 40, I have kids that I’m raising in the same city where I grew up. And we’re standing in the same places. And I have to reckon with the fact that the Oakland that I grew up in is completely gone. It will never come back. And I have to explain to them what it was, but they can never truly understand it. It’s this inherent quality of the human condition. And how multiplied that must be for a vampire so that was kind of my starting point. But it was a phenomenal blessing to direct my uncle’s hero.
How Does Ryan Coogler Feel About Making Another Black Panther Movie?

The last time we spoke was for Wakanda Forever. At the end of the interview, I mentioned in passing how that movie probably took years off your life. You laughed way too hard.
COOGLER: Right.
So, at the time, I wasn’t totally sure you’d make another Black Panther movie. Was that an actual decision you had to sit down and make, or did you never question you’d come back for the third one?
COOGLER: I think my biggest point of questioning was after Chadwick died, I didn’t know if I could keep going. But after the process of making that one, I knew I’d be back if the studio would have me.
I see. So it was never, oh, I need to sit down and think about this.
COOGLER: I did sit down and thought about it after Chad passed. But then we finished it and it was an arduous process for sure. It definitely took years off my life, bro. But I’m in it now, do you know what I’m saying? I want to make the next one for sure if the studio will have me, man. But I also wanted to get this movie off my chest before I got back into that world. There’s another thing I’m working on [Wrong Answer, also with Michael B. Jordan] before I’ll go back to that as well. But I love those characters. I love that world. There’s definitely more story to tell.

Sinners

Release Date

April 18, 2025

Runtime

138 Minutes

Director

Ryan Coogler

Writers

Ryan Coogler