Sinners: The Secret Chadwick Boseman Tribute Explained

The entire world was already enduring a genuinely horrible time during the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020, and that August, millions of moviegoers were also shattered to learn that Chadwick Boseman tragically passed away at the age of 43. Five years later, Boseman's collaborator, writer and director Ryan Coogler, worked with his creative team on his original film "Sinners" and snuck in a perfect tribute to Coogler's fallen superhero.

Hannah Beachler, who also worked with both Coogler and Boseman on 2018's "Black Panther" — and who made history as the first Black woman to win an Academy Award for production design for the superhero film, which also earned a best score award for Ludwig Göransson — posted on the social media site X about the ode to Boseman in "Sinners." In a post featuring a photo of Miles Caton's character Sammie Moore seeking help from his father at said father's church, Beachler wrote:

"[Three] crosses, [Sammie] & his Father are The Father, The Son & The Holy Spirit. The rough sawn beams the crosses hold are exactly 33 inches apart, the age Jesus died, & the number that represents the end [...] The crossed beams above are for Chadwick, making the Wakanda Forever gesture."

I'm personally quite thrilled that Beachler, an unbelievably talented designer who's also worked on other Coogler projects like "Creed" as well as Beyoncé's visual album "Lemonade" and the 2017 best picture winner "Moonlight," spoke openly about this; it's a really subtle nod to Boseman, and I never would have noticed. Now that we all know, though, it's genuinely beautiful that Coogler and Beachler decided to honor Boseman and his "Black Panther" character's now iconic pose.

In case there's anyone on the planet who's somehow unfamiliar with the "Wakanda forever" pose made famous in the "Black Panther" movie written and directed by Ryan Coogler, it's quite simple: just cross your arms over your chest in an X formation and say the words "Wakanda forever," just like Prince T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman). Wakanda, by way of reminder, is T'Challa's home country that he keeps secret from the rest of the world so that they can preserve their precious resources, including the powerful natural metal "vibranium," which powers all of their advanced technology that keeps their society running smoothly. T'Challa fights off a potential fellow heir to the throne, Michael B. Jordan's Erik "Killmonger" Stevens, and reclaims it, with T'Challa appearing in both "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame" to close out Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. By the time the 2022 sequel "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" got underway, however, Boseman was already gone. As I previously noted, the star passed away due to complications from colon cancer on August 28, 2020.

Boseman's first appearance as T'Challa actually came before "Black Panther" thanks to "Captain America: Civil War," where he becomes the king of Wakanda in the wake of his father King T'Chaka's (John Kani) death as the result of an explosion in Vienna, Austria. Still, the man embodied this trailblazing hero who governed Wakanda with kindness and compassion who ultimately chose to open this magical world up to his Black brothers and sisters across the world in the final moments of "Black Panther." The movie is also great, obviously, thanks to Coogler's vision — and in "Sinners," we get a whole new vision from this incredible director.

Between the true-crime story "Fruitvale Station," the legacy sequel "Creed," and MCU movies like "Black Panther" and its sequel, Ryan Coogler rose to prominence without helming any original stories ... until "Sinners." The movie, which stars Coogler's most fruitful and frequent collaborator Michael B. Jordan twice over as twins Elijah "Smoke" and Elias "Stack" Moore, focuses on Smoke, Stack, and their collaborators — including their younger cousin Sammie, played by the aforementioned Miles Caton, and Delta Slim, played by the incomparable Delroy Lindo — trying to open a juke joint in Mississippi. They manage to open the juke joint, but during its grand opening, as the liquor flows and Sammie amazes the crowd with his musical talents, a strange group tries to join who happen to be led by a weird man named Remmick (Jack O'Connell, a genius at playing villains). The reason for the group's strangeness? They're vampires, and they're here to attack the juke joint.

"Sinners" is, as everyone who's seen it knows, a bravura horror masterpiece from Coogler, whose specific vision, excellent script, and careful, thoughtful direction create a truly stunning original film that manages to build upon all of his previous work while still feeling impossibly fresh and new. It's easy to imagine — or fantasize about — a world where Chadwick Boseman played a role in "Sinners" after working with Coogler and Jordan on "Black Panther," but that's not something that will ever come to fruition. Thankfully, Coogler and Hannah Beachler found a way to include him in the movie after all.

"Sinners" is streaming on HBO Max now.