Few directors have had a better year than this 39-year-old Oakland native, whose 2025 cemented his place in the uppermost tier of blockbuster auteurs. After proving himself an expert steward of franchise fare with “Creed” and two culture-shifting “Black Panther” movies, Coogler notched an even more significant hit this year with “Sinners,” an original crowd-pleaser he wrote about twin brothers (both played by Michael B. Jordan) who open a juke joint in a Jim Crow-era Mississippi that’s beset by vampires.

Powered by strong reviews and premium ticket pricing, “Sinners” became the highest-grossing original live-action movie in 15 years, topped only by Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” which he made in between his second and third Batman films. “Inception” helped tee up the rest of Nolan’s career, and with Coogler now similarly positioned between his second and third “Black Panther” films, a comparison feels irresistible.

But Coogler isn’t inclined to dwell on such things. As we walked past the school facade from “Abbott Elementary,” he recalled a meeting at Warner Bros. while making “Creed.” He sat at a long table packed with executives eager to impress him, Jordan and Sylvester Stallone, a producer and co-star on that “Rocky” spinoff. Coogler got through the heady meeting by relying on the mental compartmentalization that had been drilled into him as a college football player.

“I can’t engage with it as the kid whose dreams were to come to Hollywood and make movies,” he said. “I have to engage with it as a professional shepherd of the story.”