In 2025, writer/director Ryan Coogler leveled up his career in a significant way. While there are few filmmakers in modern Hollywood who have the capacity to whole cloth create a blockbuster and turn it into a major hit, that's exactly what he did this summer with the release of Sinners – a movie hailed by critics that earned over $360 million worldwide. Needless to say, the future is quite bright for Coogler... which is why it's pretty crazy to hear that he is only a few years removed from thinking that his Hollywood career was destined to be short-lived.
The director offers some eye-opening thoughts in a recent profile published by the New York Times, including his pessimistic view from a few years ago that he wasn't going to stick around making films for an extended period. The first decade of his career was an unmitigated success, following his breakout feature Fruitvale Station in 2013 with Creed and Black Panther, but then he experienced the death of his friend and close collaborator Chadwick Boseman. Said Coogler,
I didn’t think I would last in this industry, looking at it pretty fatalistically…. Then Chad died, so I was questioning everything.
When Boseman passed away in the summer of 2020, Ryan Coogler was both dealt an emotional blow and given a mountain to climb professionally. The two men were working closely on the Black Panther sequel while it was in development, and the film needed to be massively changed when its would-be starred died. With Coogler dealing with such an extreme challenge, one can understand why he had doubts about his future prospects.
But here comes the twist: he was ultimately able to scale that metaphorical mountain. With themes about grief and loss paired with fascinating political commentary and outstanding set pieces, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever went from being a potential disaster to being a story of triumph. The work was hailed by critics, it was a box office success (even while theaters were still trying to recover after the pandemic), and Coogler was able to restore his own faith in his career prospects. He added,
There were points in that movie where it felt unfinishable, so when we put it out and I was happy with the film, I felt like, ‘OK, I could do this for the rest of my life.’
On the immediate horizon for the filmmaker is the untitled Black Panther 3, which has been confirmed as his next directorial effort (though it has neither a known targeted start of production nor a release date. As for what he may do after that, he has a literal vision of open opportunity:
To be honest with you, yes. The image I get is a green meadow with Bay Area fog on it, and it’s dawn. That’s what I see after that movie, because it feels like open land, open opportunity.
Given Ryan Coogler's talents, anything he works on at this point gains instant anticipation – and that goes for both original projects and those based on existing IP. We'll see what the future holds, but for now, everyone can continue to marvel at his latest accomplishment, as Sinners is available to stream with a HBO Max subscription.
