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,
