Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s fifth collaboration with its star Michael B. Jordan, doesn’t open until April 18. But the buzz around the sure-to-be Oscar-worthy flick already has people clamoring for a sequel.
“I never think about that,” Coogler revealed exclusively to EBONY in a recent interview. Already versed in the franchise world with Creed and Marvel’s Black Panther, the writer, producer and director was ready for a different experience with this film.
“I’ve been in a space of making franchise films for a bit, so I wanted to get away from that,” he shared with EBONY. “I was looking forward to working on a film that felt original and personal to me and had an appetite for delivering something to audiences that was original and unique.”
So, he set out to make Sinners a singular experience in and within itself. “I wanted the movie to feel like a full meal: your appetizers, starters, entrees and desserts, I wanted all of it there,” he explained. “I wanted it to be a holistic and finished thing. That was how I was asked all about it. That was always my intention.”
If this is the only version of Sinners we see from the unstoppable team of Coogler and Jordan, what an intention it is. It’s a symphony of melody and mayhem, focused on identical twin brothers (played by Jordan) whose ambition and drive lead them to open up a juke joint, despite the threats of a Jim Crow South in the 1930s.
Their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) is a preacher’s son, gifted on the guitar and vocals and eager to explore his musical prowess beyond the church pews inside the juke joint. It’s here that Coogler explores how music has always served as a vital artery of expression in our community: how it carries the stories that connect our past, present and what’s to come.
“I do think that music is a form of alchemy. I think it’s a very supernatural art form,” he shared. “I’ve had the experience of being at a party where the music is good and you got the right people around you, and for a brief period of time, you feel almost immortal…that was what I was trying to communicate.”
In one of the movie’s most epic sequences, Coogler’s cinematic eye captures the soulful strains of the blues and takes it on a journey, connecting us back to our ancestors and propelling us into the future, showcasing how rhythm has uplifted our communities, even in the darkest of times, and influenced the sounds of others.
“When I was researching the music from this time period, I realized that it was the most important American contribution to global popular culture; it was the greatest contribution our country has made to that,” Coogler said, explaining his desire to explore music’s impact on screen.
But that’s not the only world explored by the award-winning writer, producer and director. The movie sinks its teeth into the unworldly and hoodoo, a place Hollywood has often said Black audiences don’t want to go. However, the film is already projected for a $40M-plus opening this weekend, with a strong male viewership lined up to take the first bite, showing that we’re hungry for films that explore the mystical and unknown.
With a solid history of Black-oriented vampire-inspired films through the decades, Sinners reaches back to those cinematic gems that came before it and creates a new path for the supernatural to be explored for our community. And we’re here for every drop.
“It’s just the epic nature of this art form, Coogler declared. “I wanted to show that, with IMAX film photography and with all of my incredible collaborators. And it’s centered around Miles’ incredible performance.”
Sinners is in theaters on April 18.
