Chadwick Boseman passed away in 2020 at the age of 43, and this hit Ryan Coogler, who directed him in Black Panther, hard. Though the Marvel movie was the first and only time these two worked together, they had grown incredibly close with one another, and Coogler has even admitted that he didn’t think he “would last in this industry” after the actor died. However, it turns out that Boseman’s death ended up inspiring the filmmaker’s 2025 movie release, the Golden Globe-nominated Sinners.
Ryan Coogler revealed while speaking at the Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony that honored Boseman with a posthumous star. During his speech, he held up a copper bracelet that Boseman gave him after they wrapped on Black Panther, saying:
I took him for granted. I figured he’d always be around.
Black Panther wasn’t supposed to be the only collaboration between these men, as Ryan Coogler had big plans for Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa in his original vision for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It also stands to reason they would have found non-Marvel projects to tackle together, and Coogler figured they’d have all the time in the world to keep working with his friend. Sadly, Boseman died after a five-year battle with colon cancer, a medical condition very few of his non-family members knew about.
Five years later, Sinners hit theaters starring Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler’s frequent collaborator and Chadwick Boseman’s costar on Black Panther. In a separate interview with The New York Times, Coogler said that Boseman’s passing pushed him to make the vampire movie as quickly as possible, as it was released just 15 months after it was first reported to be in development. As the writer/director explained:
There was a fear of it all being taken away and not getting a chance to open up more to the audience that’s been supporting me so much.
Perhaps there’s another universe where Chadwick Boseman lived on to make Sinners with Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan. Maybe, instead of Smoke and Stack being twins, Jordan and Coogler could have played them as brothers born separately. That’s not to say I would exchange that version of the movie for what we got considering how it’s been critically acclaimed, including CinemaBlend’s Sinners review giving it a perfect score. Still, it’s interesting alternate history scenario to consider amidst many where Coogler and Boseman continued to collaborate.
After Chadwick Boseman died, he was posthumously seen in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which netted him a Golden Globe win and Academy Award nomination, and heard as a Star-Lord variant of T’Challa in What If… ? Season 1. Sinners has scored seven Golden Globe nominations, and we’ll see how it does in those categories when the next ceremony airs January 11 on CBS and Paramount+.
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