Inside Michael B. Jordan’s Award-Worthy Evolution From All My Children to Sinners

In fact, Coogler created the characters of Smoke and Stack—who return to their rural Mississippi roots, determined to open a nightclub after making their bones with the Chicago mob—expressly for Jordan.

Suffice it to say, things worked out in his favor.

And he credits AMC's huge fandom as much as the critical notice he got from The Wire for many of the opportunities that came his way.

"It opened up so many doors in the most unexpected places for me," he told People in November,  "and...looking back at it, that was something that definitely caught me off guard. I didn't expect that one."

And Jordan had Boseman, who died of colon cancer in 2020, on his mind when he sank his teeth into playing Smoke and Stack, hoping to honor his late friend with an inspired performance.

"It felt that way, specifically because of the need to keep the dialect throughout the course of a film and strive to turn in a performance that was as convincing as the ones he did," Jordan explained to Deadline. "There’s a level of respect and admiration also, because there was such a connection between us. In so many ways, I am filled with this feeling of, what would he do? This was a level-up, a gear that I need to develop and have with me."

There's no doubt that Boseman would be beyond proud. Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

David Jon/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures

In this 2008 fantasy adventure based on the book series of the same name, the future Good Doctor star played the Grace twins, Jared and Simon.

Paulson's played many different characters over the course of her tenure on Ryan Murphy's anthology, sometimes even within the same installment, but in the fourth, she had the distinction of playing conjoined twins Bette and Dot Tattler.

Before her breakout role on The Killing, Enos appeared on HBO's polygamy drama as twins JoDean and Kathy Marquart.

The SNL vet appeared on the HBO comedy's third season as twins Shane and Cole Gerald.

In this 1992 Hong Kong action-comedy, the legendary martial artist starred as twins separated at birth.

In this 1988 farce loosely based on William Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, the icons each starred as a set of identical twins mismatched at birth, with one of each pair growing up in a wealthy urban family and the other in a poor rural family.

In this 1991 action flick, the iconic Belgian actor starred as twins Chad and Alex Wagner.

The High School Musical alum starred as Lady Margaret Delacourt, Duchess of Montenaro and the identical looking baker Stacy DeNovo in Netflix's 2018 update on The Prince and the Pauper, as well as in the forthcoming sequel, The Princess Switch: Switched Again.

For three seasons, the Disaster Artist actor played twins Vincent and Frankie Martino, a bartender and a gambler, respectively, who get embroiled in with the Mob in late '70s-NYC in this HBO drama from The Wire creator David Simon.

The Avengers star will play identical twins Dominick and Thomas Birdsey in this limited-series adaptation of Wally Lamb's novel of the same name from director Derek Cianfrance, premiering on HBO on May 10, 2020.

For much of the CW hit's five-season run, the Israeli actress played both the scheming Petra and her twin sister Anezka.

On this ABC Family series loosely based on the book series of the same name, which aired for two seasons from 2011-13, the As the World Turns alum played identical twins Emma Becker and Sutton Mercer who discover one another as teenagers after being separated at birth.

In the seventh season of the Freeform hit, we learned that Bellisario's Spencer Hastings had an evil twin named Alex Drake and she began pulling double duty.

On this short-lived 2011-12 CW series, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer legend played estranged twins Bridget Kelly and Siobhan Martin.

The Disney star played twins Hallie and Annie in the 1998 remake, leaving '90s kids everywhere asking, "How did they do that?!"

The two-time Golden Globe nominee played onscreen twins Emmit and Ray Stussy in the hit drama series.

The actor portrayed real-life Winklevoss brothers in the 2010 Academy Award-winning film.

The original cast member's first onscreen twin appearance as Pheobe and Ursula Buffay took place in the 1995 episode "The One With Two Parts, Part 1."

The nine-time People's Choice Award winner played fraternal twins Jack and Jill in the 2011 holiday comedy.

With help from body doubles Emmy Buckner and Shelby Wulfert, Cameron pulled double duty as brainy basketball star Maddie and girly teen star Liv in the Disney Channel series.

The actress played CIA and FBI agent twins Nimah and Raina Amin in ABC's hit drama series.

Eighteen years before winning the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Leonardo played twins King Louis and Phillippe in the 1998 drama.

The Golden Globe-winning played George and Oscar Bluth in the Fox/Netflix sitcom.

The actor picked up a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for his work as playing Charlie and Donald Kaufman in the 2002 film.

The star portrayed Alred and Frederick Borden in the 2006 Academy Award-nominated film.

The Golden Globe winner played lead twins Bill and Brady Kincaid in the 2009 picture.

The actor took home a British Independent Film Award for his work as gangsters Reggie and Ron Kray in the 2015 crime indie.

The New York native played Paul and Eli Sunday in the 2007 Oscar-winning film.

The former Saturday Night Live star played estranged twins Kevin Pope and Jake Hayes in the 2002 action comedy.

The English actor showed his fun side when he played Tweedledee and Tweedledum in Disney's 2010 live-action remake.