Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler's fruitful collaborations

Of all the storied bonds between visionary directors and their movie star alter egos - Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Pedro Almodovar and Antonio Banderas, Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams - few have been as seamless as the one between American duo Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan.

- Reggie Ugwu

NEW YORK - Of all the storied bonds between visionary directors and their movie star alter egos - Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Pedro Almodovar and Antonio Banderas, Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams - few have been as seamless as the one between American duo Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan.

Since their first meeting, during casting for the biographical drama Fruitvale Station (2013), Jordan has starred or appeared in all five features Coogler has written and directed, including two Black Panther superhero blockbusters (2018 and 2022).

Their film Sinners took the top spot at the North American box office with an opening haul of US$46 million (S$60 million) and is now showing in Singapore cinemas. It ups the ante by assigning Jordan not one part but two. He plays twin brothers Smoke and Stack, who encounter supernatural resistance to the juke joint of their dreams in Jim Crow-era Mississippi.

In a joint interview in April, Coogler and Jordan, both 38, broke down their career-long working relationship, film by film, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It was made after the 2020 death of American actor Chadwick Boseman, star of the original Black Panther. These are edited excerpts.

SINNERS (2025)

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