Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: ryan coogler, sinners, Warner Bros

Sinners Director on the Irish Influences Behind the Film

Ryan Coogler explains the Irish roots woven through Sinners, crediting a childhood movie, folk traditions, and Bram Stoker.

Ryan Coogler's Sinners has become one of 2025's biggest success stories, and more impressively, it didn't come from existing IP. The Prohibition-era vampire thriller, led by Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as Smoke and Stack, has pulled in around $367 million worldwide on a reported $90–100 million budget, putting it among the year's top-grossing originals and highest-earning horror releases. Just as crucially, it impressed both critics and audiences, earning strong reviews and high scores across the board. So, at this point, it's pretty clear people are responding well to its mix of Southern Gothic horror, blues-driven musical energy, and pointed social commentary.

Sinners Director on a Disney Movie's Unexpected Influence

During a recent Deadline Contenders panel, Coogler traced some of the movie's Irish flavor back to an unexpected place… the Disney Channel Original Movie, The Luck of the Irish. He said that film was actually his "first introduction" to how Irish folk music overlapped with the music his family grew up with, calling it a "touchpoint" that fed a long-running family fascination with Irish culture. From there, he described Sinners as both an opportunity to lean into that interest and a "big shoutout" to Irish author Bram Stoker, noting that their vampire Remmick was conceived as a pre-colonial Irishman with a deep backstory the film only hints at.

That layered approach shows up in how Remmick moves through the story. In the film, the centuries-old Irish immigrant vampire circles a 1932 Mississippi juke joint opened by Smoke and Stack, turning the club into his hunting ground as music, race, and power collide over one bloody night. Coogler and Jack O'Connell make the effort to frame him as charismatic and predatory, but also strangely sad, exploring Irish myth, Black history in the American South, and economic exploitation into one figure who offers immortality in exchange for cultural and spiritual surrender.

As the film racks up end-of-year accolades and (deserving) buzz, many are already wondering whether Coogler will return for a sequel, especially after those end-credit scenes that jump forward to 1990s Chicago. Which could honestly work. Still, for now, Sinners stands on its own as a rare original hit, ambitious enough to stretch the boundaries of what a studio genre movie can be this year.

Check out Sinners via HBO Max.

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