The part of Marvel that rubbed off on Ryan Coogler

Ryan Coogler doesn't seem especially likely to direct another Marvel movie. I don't believe there are any more stand-alone Black Panther movies in the works, and even if there were, Coogler himself probably figures that two is enough, and he doesn't want his career to be defined by becoming a Marvel company man.

But there sure seems to be a part of the Marvel experience that has stayed with him.

I won't say much about Sinners. Before I write my review, I'm trying to figure out how much of the plot is known from the trailers or from the press coverage in general. I can tell you that from the one trailer I saw a couple months ago, I did not remember key elements of the movie, just a general vibe -- which is what a good trailer should do. I can also tell you that I loved it.

I'll tell you one more thing that is important to know, though, and it's not a spoiler. In fact, it is a public service of sorts.

Sinners has not one, but two extra scenes -- a mid-credits sequence and a sequence after the credits.

Sound familiar?

Although there are surely other movies that do a thing like this, it was popularized by Marvel and most of the other movies that do it are trying to ride the MCU coattails in some way. In other words, it is very clearly a superhero or at least superhero adjacent move.

Sinners is only superhero adjacent in the sense that its director directed two superhero movies.

But he's pulled the Marvel move, and you need to know, because I was the only one in my screening who didn't walk out of the movie before the second sequence. 

Now, I'll also tell you that the first mid-credits sequence is a lot more important, to the story, than the second. The second is effectively not important at all.

But it does qualify as more movie that Coogler saw fit to make, and with a movie like Sinners, you want to see all the movie there is to see.

It's hard to determine if Coogler would have made this choice without having made Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. In fact, as a sort of sign of respect of the passed Chadwick Boseman, I think the second one might be one of the few MCU movies that does not interrupt its closing credits with more movie. Because these sequences are often cheeky in some way, it's maybe not the tone for it if you are also, I don't know, honoring the passing of the star of the franchise.

Wait, I can check. Yes, confirmed. Only the words "Black Panther will return" after the credits end. (Though, presumably, not in a stand-alone movie.)

Maybe Coogler thought this decision shorted him two mid-credits sequences, and he had to fit them into his next movie.