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Director, composer and actor appeared at event in Clarksdale attended by hundreds after community petition
Hundreds of people packed inside a local auditorium on Thursday to see the hit film Sinners, set in their community and steeped in Mississippi Delta culture.
The special screening of the blockbuster horror film included an appearance by director Ryan Coogler and was made possible by a community petition.
The X-Files have been closed since the last revival on Fox in 2018, but Ryan Coogler’s take on the franchise is still moving forward. The director of Marvel’s Black Panther movies and the newly released Sinners has revealed that The X-Files is “immediately next,” and he’s already spoken to original series star Gillian Anderson about potentially appearing as Dana Scully.
During his appearance on Last Podcast on the Left, Coogler confirmed that he reached out to Anderson and added, “she’s incredible. Fingers crossed there.”
Anderson originated her role as Scully in 1993 and starred alongside David Duchovny’s Agent Fox Mulder across the first seven seasons of the series. Duchovny left the show in season 8, but returned for the series finale in 2002. For the final two seasons of the show’s original run, Anderson was given top billing. Anderson and Duchovny also headlined the two X-Files feature films and the two-season revival on Fox from 2016 to 2018. However, Anderson indicated that she wasn’t willing to return for a third season of the revival.
As noted by Deadline, Anderson gave her endorsement to Coogler’s new take on the franchise during an appearance on Today in 2004. She stopped short of committing to a return, but suggested that she was open to appearing in some capacity.
It’s unclear how the new version of The X-Files will connect to the original series. Coogler didn’t elaborate on that during his guest appearance on Last Podcast on the Left. But he did tease a desire to get back to the show’s horror roots.
“I’ve been excited about that for a long time, and I’m fired up to get back to it,” said Coogler. “Some of those episodes, if we do our jobs right, will be really… scary. We’re gonna try to make something really great, bro, and really be something for the real X Files fans, and maybe find some new ones.”
Anderson has yet to acknowledge her discussion with Coogler on social media, but she has reopened the Sex Files, so to speak. Via The Guardian, Anderson announced a follow-up to Want, her bestselling anthology of female sexual fantasies. Anderson has called for new submissions on her official site, which will remain open through May 23.
Director and screenwriter Ryan Coogler has only made five feature films to date, and all five of them have featured Michael B. Jordan. Coogler and Jordan have proven to be a potent pairing, as evidenced by Sinners’ stronger-than-expected performance at the box office over the weekend. That film managed to unseat this year’s current box-office champion, A Minecraft Movie, in its third weekend.
Now that Sinners is well on its way to becoming a hit, it’s time to look back at all five of the Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan collaborations and rank them from worst to best. Somehow, we doubt that Jordan will be able to star in all of Coogler’s subsequent movies. However, this collaboration won’t be ending anytime soon. So far, Coogler and Jordan bring out the best in each other.
Despite his character’s death in the previous movie, Jordan briefly reprised his role as Eric Killmonger in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. That sequel is largely a tribute to Chadwick Boseman, who passed away from colon cancer in 2020. Since Boseman couldn’t reprise his role as T’Challa, his character was killed off in Wakanda Forever‘s opening scene, leaving his sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), to mourn for him before assuming his mantle as the new Black Panther.
Jordan makes the most of his appearance as he challenges Shuri about how she’s going to respond to the attack on her family and her nation. It’s clear that even in the afterlife, Killmonger hasn’t changed. And he seems to have awareness of what’s happening on Earth after his death. Shuri may not have wanted to encounter Killmonger on the Ancestral Plane, but his presence did influence her. Jordan’s role is minimal, so Wakanda Forever ranks last on our list of his collaborations with Coogler.
Watch Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on Disney+.
In 2015, Coogler’s Creed demonstrated a brilliant way to revive the Rocky franchise. The first of three films established that the late Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) had an illegitimate son, Adonis “Donnie” Creed. And Coogler turned to Jordan to bring the character to life.
Because Donnie grew up without his father, he felt the need to follow in Apollo’s footsteps as a boxer. Sylvester Stallone reprised his role as Rocky Balboa, Apollo’s former rival turned friend, who became Donnie’s mentor and trainer in this film. The emotional bond that develops between Donnie and Rocky is compelling and cathartic. There are real emotions in this boxing flick, and it’s a worthy addition to the Rocky films.
Watch Creed on Prime Video.
For their fifth film together, Coogler decided that the perfect co-star for Jordan was Jordan himself! Sinners features Jordan as twins Elijah “Smoke” Moore and Elias “Stack” Moore, both of whom are World War I veterans and former associates of Chicago gangster Al Capone. In 1932, the Moore brothers are looking to start over by returning to their hometown in Mississippi to open a juke joint.
Because this film has only recently been released, we’re going to refrain from sharing too many spoilers. It’s enough to say that the brothers encounter a supernatural evil that’s more dangerous than anything they’ve dealt with before. Jordan gave two great performances a film that has quickly become one of the few original movies to do very well in 2025.
Sinners is now playing in theaters.
Jordan made a huge impression as Eric Killmonger in the first Black Panther by portraying the film’s villain as someone who really saw himself as the hero of the story. Coogler made Killmonger’s backstory more tragic, which went a long way towards getting the audience to sympathize with the bad guy. But this so-called villain also had radical ideas that the most technologically advanced nation on Earth should do more to help the oppressed Black people on the planet. Killmonger intended to use Wakanda’s weapons to lead a global uprising.
Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa was a very thoughtful hero and a great foil for Killmonger. In the end, T’Challa even decides that Killmonger was right about Wakanda’s responsibilities, even if he didn’t share Killmonger’s desire to use violence to achieve his goals. Jordan’s final scene in the film also gave Killmonger a memorable exit from the MCU, so much so that fans clamored for his return. Jordan even reprised his role as Killmonger in Marvel’s What If? animated series.
Watch Black Panther on Disney+.
For his directorial debut, Fruitvale Station, Coogler cast Jordan as Oscar Grant III, a young Black man who was shot and killed in 2009 while he was detained and restrained by transit authorities in Oakland, California. The film follows Grant on the last day of his life as he tries to figure out a way to move forward.
Fruitvale Station doesn’t present Grant as a paragon of virtue, and he’s a complicated guy who has made mistakes. But at no point did Grant do anything to deserve what happened to him. This is a tragic story about a man whose life was ended too soon, and it put both Coogler and Jordan on the map as major players in Hollywood.
Rent or buy Fruitvale Station on Prime Video.
Director Ryan Coogler’s (Creed, Black Panther) new blockbuster, Sinners, has finally premiered, bringing a unique vision of vampire horror to cinemas. This horror-action period movie follows two gangster brothers (both played by Michael B. Jordan) who return to their hometown in hoping to turn over a new leaf. Unfortunately, their attempts to do so inadvertently attract a gang of vicious vampires who attempt to kill and feed on them and those around them.
Like Coogler’s other films, Sinners is a layered and emotional film with plenty of social commentary. The movie tells a sprawling and brutal story celebrating Black culture while exploring racial oppression through its human and demonic villains. There’s a lot to process in this movie, and now that it’s out in theaters, audiences can finally experience it and its powerful ending.
Sinners shows Smoke and Stack returning to their hometown in 1930s Mississippi, where they plan to set up a juke joint out of an old mill using the money they gathered as gangsters in Chicago. As they try to get things ready, Smoke and Stack encounter figures from their past that still haunt them. Smoke reunites with his wife, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), with whom he had a child who died during infancy. Meanwhile, Stack encounters his ex-girlfriend Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), who’s visiting town for the funeral of her mother, who took care of Smoke and Stack after their father’s death. Though Stack abandoned Mary and she has since married another man, Mary remains bitter over Stack, and they both have lingering feelings for each other.
By the end of the day, Smoke and Stack have hired multiple people in town to help get everything ready for opening night. This includes their cousin, Sammie, who has the power to make music that can conjure spirits from the past and future, as well as attract demons. Thus, when Sammie performs at the packed joint, he inadvertently attracts the evil vampire Remmick (Jack O’Connell), who had appeared at the home of two Ku Klux Klan members and turned them into his vampiric followers.
Following traditional rules, Remmick and his fellow vampires can’t enter Smoke and Stack’s joint without an invitation. To work around this, Remmick turns Mary into a vampire when she goes outside so she can infiltrate the party. Seducing Stack, Mary bites and kills him, turning him into a vampire as well. As the vampires turn more and more people to their side, Smoke and his survivors struggle to survive as paranoia builds. Eventually, when Remmick threatens the life of Grace’s (Li Jun Li) daughter, she angrily invites the vampires in, leading to a massive battle between them and the heroes, with Smoke and Sammie being the only survivors.
Though Smoke and Sammie succeed in killing Remmick once the sun rises, the former gets into a shootout with members of the Ku Klux Klan, as it was revealed that the man he bought the mill from was a leader of the KKK. Though Smoke is fatally shot, he succeeds in taking the attacking Klan members with him in an explosive and cathartic finale that puts a new spin on The Night of the Living Dead. Smoke also gets to reunite with Annie and their dead infant as he succumbs to his wounds.
At the same time, Sammie appears at his father’s church, where he is ordered to let go of his guitar and abandon his “sinful” musical ways. However, Sammie refuses and becomes a successful musician in the 1990s with a club named after his love interest, Pearline (Jayme Lawson), who died at the juke joint. This all seemed like the perfect place to end the film. But that changes fast.
A mid-credits scene shows Sammie visited by the vampiric Stack and Mary, who survived their battle in Clarksdale, despite Remmick’s death. While it seems like they have come for payback, it was revealed that Smoke spared Stack but made him promise to spare Sammie’s. Though Stack offers to make Sammie a vampire to give him immortality, the latter refuses. However, Sammie does grant Stack’s request to play music for him and Mary before they leave.
In Sinners, Remmick and his vampires embody the racial oppression directed toward Black people. They also offered Smoke, Stack, and their peers the chance to live an eternal life where they can be loved and treated equally by their fellow vampires. This seemed like a tempting offer for them, but as Stack stated in his final scene, the vampires were never truly free.
Like Sammie, Stack was only happiest just before the vampires had attacked, because he was still with his brother, and they could still go out into the sun. Stack and Mary are still bound to their undead bodies, forced to live their eternal lives in the shadows. But when Sammie plays his guitar for them, they all enjoy that brief sense of freedom his music provided for all at the juke joint.
It’s unknown what will become of Sammie, Stack, or Mary after Sinners. Like one of the Marvel films Coogler famously directed, this mid-credits scene seems to leave the door open for a sequel. At the same time, Sinners left its story on the best possible note for its characters. Sammie got to make a living playing the music he wanted to play, and Stack and Mary got to be together. It’s a tragic, surprising, and incredibly poignant ending that wraps everything up well while still leaving audiences wanting more.
Sinners is now in theaters.
5/5
★★★★★
Score Details
“Sinners is a fantastic and frightening masterpiece from one of cinema’s best, most ambitious directors.”
Writer-director Ryan Coogler has unleashed another blockbuster phenomenon with his vampire horror film, Sinners. This story follows twin gangster brothers who return to their hometown in Mississippi in the 1930s, hoping to open a juke joint with the money they gained working for Al Capone. However, their joint’s opening night is ruined when their musical entertainment attracts vampires eager to crash their party and kill everyone there.
Coogler made a bold move by stepping outside the world of IP-based franchises to make Sinners. Ultimately, the director established himself as a cinematic force of nature with this thrilling and terrifying blockbuster. Coogler clearly put his heart and soul into this movie, exploring systemic oppression in America in a refreshingly original vampire story filled with action, terror, and beautiful sights and sounds.
Sinners also features several layered and compelling characters brought to life by such incredible performers. If Coogler focuses on making horror movies from now on, such a decision would be welcome, as Sinners is proof that he knows how to make a frightening and epic blockbuster.
Michael B. Jordan delivers a stellar dual performance as brothers Smoke and Stack, with incredible visual effects seamlessly putting them on screen together. Aside from their color-coded costumes, Jordan and the film give each of these brothers enough distinguished traits to make it easy to tell them apart. Jordan also projects enough confidence, menace, and empathy with both characters to make them fearsome and sympathetic antiheroes.
On top of that, Sinners populates its world with plenty of life as Smoke and Stack assemble characters to help out at their juke joint like they’re assembling the Avengers. Each character presents a rich backstory in such little time, making it easy for audiences to empathize and connect with them, which makes seeing them bite the dust even harder.
These supporting players are also elevated by the actors portraying them. Miles Caton is a revelation as the blues-singing Sammie, who has a voice that moves mountains and makes movie magic. Hailee Steinfeld strikes the right balance of confidence and vulnerability in her performance as Mary. Delroy Lindo brings plenty of pathos and fiery comic relief as Delta Slim. Finally, Jack O’Connell plays the vampire Remmick perfectly as the devilishly charismatic villain that everyone knows they should fear but is nevertheless compelling.
In his second collaboration with cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), Ryan Coogler paints a vast and immersive portrait of 1930s Mississippi fitting for this epic blockbuster. Sinners delivers several breathtaking visuals captured on both Ultra Panavision 70mm and 15-perf 70mm IMAX cameras. Each frame of this film captures its world with such scope, detail, and beauty that not witnessing it all in a theater would feel like a sin to cinephiles.
The movie’s various musical numbers also make it a remarkable new addition to the horror genre as a whole. The film reaches a crescendo when Sammie’s music summons spirits from the past and future to play and dance with, assembling styles and instruments from different generations in an incredible long take that turns Sinners into a mind-blowing, cinematic orchestra. At the same time, composer Ludwig Göransson makes the film even more immersive with another outstanding original score.
Given the countless vampire stories that have been made over the years, Sinners could’ve been just another addition to the genre. Sinners does feature elements that harken back to Salem’s Lot, Night of the Living Dead, The Thing, and From Dusk Till Dawn. However, Coogler presents a fresh new take on classic vampires with his film, utilizing Southern folklore and setting the story in the Jim Crow-era South with plenty of blood-pumping action and frightening scares to keep audiences’ eyes glued to the screen.
Sinners also makes room to send some powerful messages about prejudice and race relations in America, with the Ku Klux Klan’s hanging over this movie until its explosive finale. On the other hand, Coogler cleverly uses vampires as symbols of the suppression of Black people and culture, as they try to steal Sammie’s music and kill and assimilate everyone at the juke joint. However, by tempting its characters with the promise of eternal life filled with “love and fellowship,” Remmick and his vampire cohort are a perfect, well-rounded contrast to the lead duo, who seek to build a new life for themselves in a country that seems determined to tear them down.
Absolutely. Sinners is the coolest horror movie of the decade. Ryan Coogler may have become a household name by directing films based on existing properties, including Creed and Black Panther. However, with his incredible new vampire movie, Coogler has established himself as one of the most ambitious and inventive directors of modern cinema. Here’s hoping that Sinners will result in even more original projects by Coogler.
Sinners is now playing in theaters.
Ryan Coogler is a true cinephile, so much so that he found inspiration for Sinners in one of the unlikeliest of sources: an animated movie.
While speaking with Get Rec’d with Straw Hat Goofy on YouTube, Coogler admitted that Puss in Boots: The Last Wish played an integral role in shaping the villain of Sinners.
“So I talk about influences on this movie right here, Sinners,” Coogler said. “That’s [Puss in Boots: The Last Wish] a massive one.”
While the titular cat gets most of the notoriety, Coogler focused on the film’s villain, the Wolf, who eventually reveals himself as Death. Coogler zeroed in on Death’s red eyes, which he applied to Sinners’ evil characters, including Jack O’Connell’s Remick.
“Think about the villain Death, think about his defining features [the eyes], think about his demeanor,” said Coogler of Death’s influence on Sinners.
Coogler also credited Louis Gonzales, a long-time animator for Pixar, for storyboarding these critical elements of Sinners.
Sinners is the fifth film to be written and directed by Coogler. Michael B. Jordan stars as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, who return to their hometown for a fresh start in the southern United States during the 1930s. However, their homecoming is derailed when they discover an “even greater evil” waiting for them in the town.
Sinners also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, Li Jun Li, and Delroy Lindo.
Sinners has been described as a supernatural horror with vampiric and musical elements. Made on a budget of $100 million, Sinners is expected to make between $30 million and $40 million domestically during its opening weekend (via Box Office Theory).
Warner Bros. will release Sinners in theaters on April 18.
When deciding to make Sinners before Black Panther 3, Ryan Coogler had to get personal.
While speaking with Deadline, Coogler discussed Sinners and why he explored vampiric horror instead of returning to Wakanda for a third chapter.
“It is interesting for you to ask where this came from and timing it before Black Panther 3,” Coogler said. “It was my realization that I had been on this path of what I could make and what I wanted to make. And realizing they had all been in the service of stories that were outside of myself.”
Coogler explained how he found a way into the story for his previous directorial features. Fruitvale Station was based on real events. In Creed, Coogler entered Sylvester Stallone’s sandbox and provided a new perspective to the Rocky franchise. For the Black Panther films, Coogler was hired for an “open directing assignment.”
With Sinners, Coogler was finally ready to express his views to the audience.
“I got this company that can make things. I’ve engaged with audiences all over the planet, man,” Coogler said. “Who can say, at my age, that they’ve had four movies released theatrically? And yet I still haven’t really opened myself up to the audience … I still haven’t brought something that was just me.”
Opening up to the audience meant exploring one of his favorite genres: horror.
“How funny is it that when I say, Hey, I’m making a horror movie and people are surprised. But if you know me, I love those movies,” Coogler said. “If I had to reckon with the fact that the audience doesn’t truly know me. And I got scared that I would look up and be 50 and would still be in that situation. And by then, I might not have anything to say. So the movie was made because I had to make it right now. And with the people that I wanted to make it with, it had to happen now. Or if not, it wouldn’t. I feared that. And that was why now.”
Michael B. Jordan stars as Smoke and Stack, twin brothers who return to their hometown for a fresh start, only to discover a sinister presence waiting for them. Coogler mentioned that his late Uncle James’ love for blues music played an integral part in Sinners.
Written and directed by Coogler, Sinners opens in theaters on April 18, 2025.