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The rumors are true. Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler will team up for aMiami Vicereboot, titledMiami Vice ’85. (This is, without a doubt, one of the best casting decisions in years.)
The new movie, directed by Joseph Kosinski (the filmmaker behind action-movie phenomenonsTop Gun:MaverickandF1), will draw directly on the cult-classic 1980s television show, particularly its first season. Jordan and Butler step into the roles of Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs and James “Sonny” Crockett, two undercover Miami-Dade detectives originally played by Philip Michael Thomas and Don Johnson.
Miami Vicefirst aired on NBC in 1984, running for five seasons through 1990. The crime drama, created by Anthony Yerkovich, dove into the cocaine boom in the 1980s. In each episode, the leading cops infiltrated South Florida’s drug trafficking rings in high-stakes missions (often shockingly cynical for network television at the time). Tubbs and Crockett sported pastel suits and drove sports cars as part of their cover, giving the show its unmistakable aesthetic.
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Jordan, who just won theOscarfor his turn as twins in Ryan Coogler’sSinners, will play Detective Rico Tubbs, a New York City cop who moved to Miami to avenge his brother’s murder. Meanwhile, Butler will play Detective Sonny Crockett, a jaded cop living on a sailboat with his pet alligator. (Yes, you read that right.) Butler is fresh off two movies in 2025—Ari Aster’sEddingtonand Darren Aronofsky’sCaught Stealing—and will star inEnemiesalongside Jeremy Allen White at an unspecified date.
Johnson and Butler have been in talks for the roles for some time now. In an interview last year, Kosinski expressed his admiration for the two actors, tellingVarietythat “if it ends up being those two, I’d be very lucky.” (Seems his luck and ours is first class.)
We can expect Jordan and Butler to don the same 1980s aesthetic as the original. Kosinski (and the title itself) confirmed that the reboot will be a period piece, deviating from Michael Mann’s 2006 reboot, which placed Sonny and Rico in the mid-aughts. In Mann’s iteration, Jamie Foxx’s Tubbs and Collin Farrell’s Crockett shed the pastel suits in favor of a grittier wardrobe and aesthetic. (Yet, Mann’s version still is undeniably stylish, with Farrell and Foxx clad inArmani.)
Universal Pictures confirmed the film yesterday, but we shouldn’t hold our breath. Shooting won’t even start until next year (but Kosinski revealed he will be shooting on IMAX cameras). The new film will be released on August 6, 2027.
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