Ryan Coogler says he’s “never” thought about making Sinners 2, casting doubt on earlier reports that one is in development.
Update 2nd June 2025: Days after reports that Sinners 2 is listed as being in development, director Ryan Coogler has said in an interview that he’s “never” thought about making a follow-up to this year’s terrific horror piece.
Speaking to Ebony Magazine (via Variety), Coogler said that, having made the likes of Creed and Black Panther, he made Sinners as a move away from franchise filmmaking.
“I’ve been in a space of making franchise films for a bit, so I wanted to get away from that,” Coogler said. “I was looking forward to working on a film that felt original and personal to me and had an appetite for delivering something to audiences that was original and unique.”
In late May, the Sinners 2 title emerged as an ‘in-development’ project on a Publishing Weekly listing, understandably leading to much speculation (including on this site) that Coogler might be thinking of continuing his toothsome period story. Sinners may have made $350m and counting at the global box office, but for now, it seems that the listing may have been some sort of admin error.
Our original story follows…
Original story 30th May 2025: “Franchise potential” is one of those phrases that studio executives just love to hear when they’re being pitched a project, not that Ryan Coogler would have had to work this aspect of his presentation for Sinners too hard. After all, the Deep South vampire movie was the filmmaker’s first original film since his acclaimed debut 2014’s Fruitvale Station and since then, Coogler has gone on to make a string of acclaimed films, such as Black Panther and Creed, that have also done great business.
Sinners was by all accounts a hot property around Hollywood, with several studios vying for the film. Ultimately, Warner Bros backed it, and its huge success during its theatrical run – $341m worldwide with a whopping $270m of that coming from the US – would be a much-needed tonic given the the studio were enduring an uneven run of form.
Of course, dollars and cents are only part of the equation here: Sinners was rightly met with universal praise and remains one of the best films of the year thus far. Given that the film achieved that rare combination of commercial success and critical adulation, you can see why Warner Bros would want to push a sequel into development, and it looks like the studio has its wish.
Read more: Sinners review | Finally, a studio blockbuster that bites
According to a new listing at Production Weekly (thanks to Dark Horizons for spotting this), Sinners 2 is now listed as an in-development project.
What that means in practical terms is currently unclear given that Ryan Coogler has his remake of The X-Files and a potential third Black Panther film on the horizon. As such, we’re not really sure how ‘active’ development on Sinners 2 could be at this point, but who knows? Perhaps he’s working on it as we speak.
It’s far too early to glean any information about where a sequel could go or who might return, but without going into spoiler territory, we’d love to watch a follow-up featuring the further adventures of the characters who pop up in the film’s final scene. If you know, you know and that would be an exciting prospect – as would an entirely new tale populated with new characters.
It might take some time but when we do hear more regarding Sinners 2, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the first film’s physical disc release in July.
