Many of us have been waiting for the day when we could download Ryan Coogler’s exceptional horror flick Sinners so it can scare us in the comfort of our own homes. To celebrate the release of Sinners on digital retailers, Fandango released a deleted scene from the film that adds a bit more emotional weight to the climatic juke joint massacre. (Note: Spoilers for the story of Sinners follow.)
In the film, gangsters and twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown in the Mississippi Delta with dreams of building a juke joint for all the sweaty late-night dancing, and revenue, that comes with it. Before a vampiric threat descends upon the tale, the early parts of the film show the brothers using their charm, guile, and gun-toting intimidation tactics to assemble a team to help build and run the juke joint for one night. While the original film gives glimpses into its creation as Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) extols the magic of the Blues, the deleted scene presents a streamlined, uninterrupted look at the juke joint’s construction.
Watching the joy on everyone’s faces as they toil away to build a utopia of their own in the middle of the racist South is bittersweet since that very juke joint is where most of them lose their lives at the hands (and teeth) of the undead later that night. Just spending a little more time with these characters frying catfish, marveling at the possibilities of the gigantic structure, and helping one another makes you want to stay in that world a bit longer. It also makes you want a sequel that will likely never happen.
When a film is as big a cultural and box office success as Sinners, you expect fans and film studios to clamor for more. After rumors of a Sinners sequel being in the works surfaced, Coogler squashed any hopes of returning to that world. In an interview with Ebony Magazine, the acclaimed director explained how he never considered making a Sinners sequel because he aimed to make a fleshed-out, complete story, and wanted to get away from the sequel world he found himself in after helming the Creed and Black Panther franchises.
“I’ve been in a space of making franchise films for a bit, so I wanted to get away from that,” he shared with Ebony. “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.”
At this point, our best bet at revisiting the cinematic world Coogler meticulously crafted in Sinners is to just press play on the digital release. Or we can hope and pray he somehow gets involved in the Blade film we all have pretty much given up on.