'Black Panther' Director Ryan Coogler Was Mistaken For A Bank Robber & Detained In Atlanta

Black Panther director Ryan Coogler walked into an Atlanta bank to withdraw his money and walked out in handcuffs.

The filmmaker was arrested at a Bank of America in January after staffers thought he was staging a robbery and reported it, according to the Atlanta Police Department.

"This situation should never have happened," Coogler told Variety this week, after the arrest came to light.

Coogler handed the teller a withdrawal slip saying that he wanted to take $12,000 from his checking account, Variety reports. He also said he'd like to be "discreet" about the large sum of money, asking that she count it somewhere else.

The system alerted the teller about the transaction since it was more than $10,000, and the police were called for a suspected robbery, according to CNN.

Bodycam footage released by Atlanta police shows officers confronting Coogler at the teller, putting him in handcuffs and then leading him out of the bank.

Later footage shows Coogler standing outside a police patrol car with his mask on. He tells police who he is and they release him after verifying his identity.

"I'm not trying to say out loud how much money I'm taking out," he said to the officers. He was explaining why he had asked for discretion in the slip, instead of asking to speak to a manager. "I'm going to consider it now...but up to this point, every Bank of America I have ever gone to in my entire f--- life, this never happened," he added.

The New York Times reported that Coogler was "paying for a medical assistant" who was working for his family and preferred to be discreet due to safety concerns and the large sum of cash he was withdrawing.

Social media users blasted the bank staff for their reaction, while others pointed to this as a heartbreaking example of racism against a successful Black man.

"This Ryan Coogler thing 🥴 It's weird to me how people are going so hard to justify the teller being "shook" enough to tell her manager she thought it was a bank robbery. The truth is that she & the manager were incompetent b/c they didn't verify his ID. Period," said @mekishana in a Twitter post.

"This Ryan Coogler bank situation has me spooked because the bank teller literally could have caused this man’s death. Her and her manager also put everyone’s life in danger when they relied on police before verifying whether or not he was a BOA customer," posted @thekorturn on his account.

A spokesperson from Bank of America told Variety that they "deeply regret that this incident occurred. It never should have happened, and we have apologized to Mr. Coogler."

BBC reports that Coogler said the Bank of America "worked with me and addressed it to my satisfaction, and we have moved on."

The Oscar nominee is currently in Atlanta filming Marvel's Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever.