John Leguizamo will play the heavy in Universal's upcoming "Miami Vice '85," joining a star-packed cast led by Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in a reboot that won't hit theaters until 2028.
Director Joseph Kosinski, who earned Best Picture Oscar nominations for both "Top Gun: Maverick" and "F1," is assembling a deep roster for his take on the franchise that defined 1980s television. The Wrap reported that Leguizamo has signed on as the film's villain, a casting choice first broken by The Hollywood Reporter.
The role adds Leguizamo to a lineup that already includes Jordan as Rico Tubbs and Butler as Sonny Crockett, the two undercover detectives who became pop-culture icons when the original "Miami Vice" pilot aired in 1984. Alden Ehrenreich, Whitney Peak, Camila Morrone, and Danny Ramirez round out the announced cast.
Leguizamo's casting comes at a strong moment in his career. He most recently starred as Eumaeus in Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey," a film that has generated awards-race chatter for his performance. "The Odyssey" passed $1.67 billion at the global box office in its ninth weekend, overtaking "Jurassic World" to become Universal's highest-grossing film of all time before inflation adjustment.
That kind of box-office heat doesn't hurt when a studio is stacking a tentpole. Universal clearly sees "Miami Vice '85" as a major franchise play, and pairing Leguizamo's villain turn with Jordan and Butler gives the film a three-headed marquee built on recent commercial success.
Leguizamo is repped by UTA, Mosaic, and Jackoway Austen.
Behind the camera, the creative team carries serious weight. Dan Gilroy, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter behind "Nightcrawler," wrote the screenplay. Eric Warren Singer wrote an earlier draft. Dylan Clark is producing alongside Kosinski, and Universal executives Sara Scott and Christina Hoffrogge will oversee the project for the studio.
The film draws on characters created by Anthony Yerkovich, who co-executive produced the original "Miami Vice" series with Michael Mann. The original show followed Crockett and Tubbs as they took on drug lords and other criminals on the streets of Miami Beach, a premise the reboot appears to carry forward with an '85 setting baked right into the title.
Filming is set to begin later this year. Universal has scheduled the release for May 19, 2028.
Specific character details for Leguizamo's villain remain under wraps, as do the roles played by Ehrenreich, Peak, Morrone, and Ramirez. Whether Michael Mann or Yerkovich have any creative involvement in the new film beyond the source material is also unclear.
Hollywood reboots are a gamble. But when you pair proven talent with a brand Americans still remember, and a villain audiences will actually want to watch, the bet starts to look a lot smarter.
