Ryan Coogler on duality and the song that shaped ‘Sinners’

Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Ryan Coogler established himself as a vital new voice with his 2013 directorial debut Fruitvale Station. His profile has risen steadily ever since. In 2015, he put his stamp on the Rocky franchise with Creed — starring his consummate collaborator Michael B. Jordan as the titular Adonis Creed. In 2018, Coogler leveled up yet again with Marvel’s Black Panther, which became the first superhero film to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever followed in 2022. Coogler's latest Sinners is his first wholly original feature film, and places Jordan into dual roles as twins Smoke and Stack. The film follows the twins as they return to their hometown in the Mississippi Delta and find themselves facing a supernatural threat.
Coogler tells The Treatment about how two versions of the same song played a key role as he was developing the script for Sinners, why he wanted to feature identical twin characters, and why filming in New Orleans reminded him of his Oakland, CA hometown.