Ryan Coogler, the acclaimed director of the Marvel film Black Panther, became embroiled in a real-life drama when he was wrongfully detained after being mistaken for a bank robber in Atlanta. The unfortunate incident occurred in 2022.
According to a police report obtained by TMZ, it all started when Coogler—who is well-known for his visionary work on movies like Fruitvale Station and Creed—strolled into his bank wearing sunglasses and a face mask and slipped the bank teller a note with written instructions on it.
Misinterpreting the situation, the teller believed it to be a bank robbery. The seniors were informed, and they promptly contacted the police, and Google was hudcuffed. Only when it became clear what was really going on, that he was eventually freed.
The Case of Mistaken Identity: Ryan Coogler’s Encounter as a Bank Robber
Ryan Coogler was detained by Atlanta police in 2022 after being mistakenly identified as a bank robber at a Bank of America branch, according to a report first made public by TMZ. The director of Black Panther was taken into custody after making a totally legitimate bank transaction.
In an interview with Variety, the director stated:
“This situation never should have happened”, and that “Bank of America worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction and we have moved on”.
According to an Atlanta Police Department report, which TMZ reported, Coogler, 37, was sporting a hat, sunglasses, and a COVID face mask. He approached the counter and gave the teller a withdrawal slip with a note that said:
“I would like to withdraw $12,000 cash from my checking account. Please do the money count somewhere else. I’d like to be discreet.”
The teller, a Black woman who was reportedly pregnant, was suspicious of this; however, neither Atlanta police nor other reports have confirmed her identity. The specific amount of the transaction set off an alarm in the banking system, which led the teller to misinterpret the circumstances as an attempt at theft.
The teller then told her supervisor, and the two of them called the police. Before handcuffing the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director, authorities reportedly arrived on the scene, detained two individuals in an SUV outside the bank, and waited for Coogler to come out.
Once all of the detainees were eventually released, according to the police report, Coogler asked for the badge numbers of every responding officer.
This Is Why Director Ryan Coogler Almost Quit Filmmaking
Following the death of Chadwick Boseman in 2020, Black Panther director Ryan Coogler was not sure if he wanted to make a sequel. To be honest, he was not sure if he would want to direct another film in the future.
He talked about his intentions to rejoin the cast on set after Boseman’s death in an interview with EW. In addition to losing the star, Coogler was also mourning the loss of a close friend when Boseman passed away in August 2020 following a quiet fight with colon cancer. The filmmaker shared:
“I was at a point when I was like, ‘I’m walking away from this business. I didn’t know if I could make another movie period, [let alone] another Black Panther movie, because it hurt a lot. I was like, ‘Man, how could I open myself up to feeling like this again?’”
Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, and Coogler have both stated repeatedly that they had no intention of changing T’Challa’s current casting. The latter added:
“It’s my job as a filmmaker to do things that I have personal integrity with. If I don’t believe in what I’m doing, I’m going to have a hard time getting other people to do their best work. For them to do their best work, they have to believe in it. At the end of the day, the choices we make have to feel truthful to me. When filmmakers make things that don’t feel truthful to them, you can feel it. And I will argue that those projects don’t have a shot at working.”
In addition to winning three of the seven Academy Awards that it was nominated for, Black Panther also took home a plethora of other honors.
Black Panther is streaming on Disney+.
