First Look: Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler Suit Up as Tubbs and Crockett in Joseph Kosinski’s Neon-Soaked Miami Vice ’85

Image: Collected

The pastel haze of mid-1980s Miami just got a high-octane reboot. Universal Pictures has released the first official images of Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in character for Miami Vice ’85, and the heat is already on. Production is underway, the IMAX cameras are rolling, and two of Hollywood’s most magnetic leading men have stepped into the iconic roles that defined a generation of cool.​

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Jordan plays Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs, the sharp New York detective who heads south seeking justice, while Butler embodies James “Sonny” Crockett, the jaded undercover vice cop living on a sailboat with more style (and secrets) than most people have in a lifetime. In the first-look character one-sheets, Jordan appears as a leather-jacketed Tubbs, gun in hand, radiating quiet intensity. Butler’s Crockett is sharp in a tailored suit, equally armed and every bit the swaggering Miami operator. These are not mere costume tests—they feel like declarations of intent.​

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Director Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick, F1) is the perfect architect for this revival. The film is a period piece inspired by the pilot episode (“Brother’s Keeper”) and first season of the landmark 1984–1990 NBC series created by Anthony Yerkovich and executive-produced by Michael Mann. It promises to dive deep into the glamour and corruption of mid-’80s Miami—fast boats, faster cars, pastel suits, pulsing synths, and the underworld that thrived beneath the neon. Unlike Mann’s gritty 2006 theatrical adaptation (starring Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx), this version leans into the original show’s stylish, MTV-era DNA while bringing modern technical firepower. Kosinski is shooting for IMAX with cinematographer Claudio Miranda, reuniting the visual team behind some of the most visceral big-screen action of the last decade.​

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The supporting cast is stacked. John Leguizamo is reportedly playing a major cartel-connected antagonist (a full-circle moment for the actor, who appeared on the original series early in his career). Alden Ehrenreich, Whitney Peak (reportedly Jordan’s love interest), Camila Morrone, Danny Ramirez, Walton Goggins, André Holland, Edi Gathegi, Andrew Schulz, and Michael Irby (as Lt. Lou Rodriguez) round out a formidable ensemble. Dan Gilroy (Nightcrawler) wrote the screenplay, with an earlier draft by Eric Warren Singer. Dylan Clark and Kosinski produce.​

Hollywood Reporter

Miami Vice was never just a cop show. It was a cultural earthquake—fashion, music, architecture, and attitude all filtered through the humid, dangerous beauty of South Florida. Crockett and Tubbs didn’t just fight crime; they looked better doing it than anyone else on television. Jordan and Butler bring star power, physical presence, and dramatic credibility that should honor that legacy while making it feel urgent and new. Jordan, fresh off his Oscar-winning turn in Sinners, and Butler, still riding the wave of Elvis, Dune: Part Two, and more, form a pairing that feels destined.

Filming is happening in Miami and New York. The theatrical release is set for May 19, 2028—plenty of time for Kosinski to craft the kind of propulsive, meticulously designed spectacle he does best. In an era of endless franchises and safe bets, Miami Vice ’85 arrives with genuine swagger: a period piece that knows exactly what made the original intoxicating, steered by a director who understands how to make audiences feel the speed, the danger, and the style in their bones.

The first images are just the opening salvo. The real heat—the boats slicing through Biscayne Bay at night, the confrontations in neon-lit clubs, the moral gray zones that defined Crockett and Tubbs—is still coming. But one thing is already clear: the vice is back, and it looks damn good.