Michael B. Jordan released new character portraits from “Sinners” on Friday, featuring himself and co-star Wunmi Mosaku in character as Smoke and Annie.
The images were shot by photographer and director Eli Joshua. Jordan published them on Instagram with a single question for his audience: “how many times have you seen Sinners?”
It’s a precise question to ask about this particular film. Directed by Ryan Coogler, “Sinners” arrived in 2025 as a period horror story set in the Mississippi Delta. It connected with audiences well past a typical opening weekend. Repeat viewers came back to it – and kept talking about it for months. Jordan took on the dual role of twin brothers Smoke and Stack. Playing two distinct characters across a single story is one of the more technically demanding things an actor can take on. His performance drew strong reactions from critics and audiences alike.
Wunmi Mosaku plays Annie and was tagged in the post. She’s known internationally for her Emmy-nominated performance in “Lovecraft Country” in 2021 and for her work in “His Dark Materials.” In “Sinners,” she brought a grounded, measured intensity to her performance. Her scenes with Jordan were some of the film’s most affecting.
Eli Joshua’s portraits are worth considering on their own terms. Joshua works across photography and directing. His portraiture tends to look inward – he draws out something below the surface rather than what’s immediately on show. The images of Smoke and Annie have a genuine stillness to them. That quality sits apart from what the film asked of these characters. It gives the portraits a presence of their own.
Jordan’s framing of this release is telling. Asking how many times someone has seen a film isn’t routine promotional strategy. It’s an acknowledgment that “Sinners” built a repeat-viewer audience. The film earned it. It generated strong word of mouth through its theatrical run. Critical conversation continued well past the opening weeks.
The Coogler-Jordan partnership has been building since “Fruitvale Station” in 2013. The “Creed” films deepened it. “Sinners” pushed it somewhere new. Each project in that collaboration seems to find fresh territory in Jordan’s work.
For Mosaku, the film was a meaningful step in her US career. “Lovecraft Country” first put her on the wider radar. “Sinners” made a stronger case for what she can carry in a major production.
The portraits don’t come attached to any announcement. Nothing new is being teased. They read as pure appreciation – for the film, for Eli Joshua’s craft, and for a story worth going back to.