Miami Vice '85 First-Look Images Put Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler on the Case

Universal has shared the first official look at Miami Vice '85, revealing Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in character as Ricardo Tubbs and James "Sonny" Crockett. The images arrive as production begins on the feature-film reboot, offering an early glimpse at the new interpretation of the stylish crime saga ahead of its planned May 19, 2028 premiere.

Jordan appears as Tubbs while Butler takes on the role of Crockett, the central undercover detectives whose partnership defined the original television phenomenon. Both first-look photographs position the actors as armed, sharply dressed leads, immediately signaling that the project intends to retain the cool, danger, and high-end visual identity closely associated with Miami Vice.

There is still a substantial road ahead for the production. The first photos celebrate the start of filming rather than the completion of the movie, with the release sitting nearly two years away. Even so, the reveal supplies the clearest indication yet of how the new film will approach one of the most recognizable crime properties of the 1980s.

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A return to the glamour and danger of 1980s Miami

Miami Vice '85 is being framed as a return to the setting, atmosphere, and cultural moment that made the original show distinctive. A description of the project says the film will explore the "glamour and corruption" of mid-1980s Miami. Its story is inspired by the pilot episode and first season of the landmark series, which became known not only for its crime stories but also for its enormous influence on fashion, music, television aesthetics, and filmmaking.

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That emphasis is important. The original Miami Vice was never simply a conventional police procedural with designer jackets and fast cars added for decoration. Its visual language was part of its dramatic identity. The series paired undercover law-enforcement work with neon-lit streets, waterfront wealth, drug-trafficking networks, nightlife, speedboats, exotic cars, and a music-driven mood that made Miami feel glamorous even when its characters were operating in morally compromised and violent spaces.

The phrase "mid-80s Miami" also suggests that the movie is not being positioned as a contemporary continuation with legacy names attached. Instead, it appears set to revisit the original era directly. That gives the production an opportunity to build its own version of the period while working from the show's foundational material, especially the early episodes that established Crockett and Tubbs as an unlikely but formidable team.

For audiences familiar with the series, the first images create obvious questions about the balance between faithful recreation and reinvention. The recognizable basics are present: two detectives, weapons, a polished wardrobe, and a city where wealth and criminality are expected to overlap. The larger question is how the screenplay, performances, soundtrack, action, and production design will reshape those ingredients for a new film audience.

Jordan and Butler inherit the central partnership

Michael B. Jordan steps into the role of Ricardo Tubbs, while Austin Butler plays James "Sonny" Crockett. Their casting gives the reboot two actors with significant experience carrying high-profile dramatic projects, but the pair will also face the particular challenge of taking over characters with an enduring place in pop culture.

Crockett and Tubbs are inseparable from the original show's identity. The core premise of their partnership gives the story much of its emotional and dramatic engine: two officers navigating undercover operations in a city where the line between performance and personal life can become dangerously thin. Their work demands confidence, adaptability, and trust, but the criminal worlds they enter continually test all three.

Jordan's Tubbs is especially notable because the character has historically been a major part of the series' emotional center rather than merely a supporting counterpart to Crockett. Tubbs arrives with his own motivations and sense of purpose, and the best versions of Miami Vice treat the two detectives as equal leads with different instincts. The new movie's first official image of Jordan gives him that central, action-forward presentation.

Butler, meanwhile, takes on the role most commonly associated with the show's sleek, restless, and often isolated undercover detective persona. His first appearance as Crockett preserves the character's polished visual profile while leaving plenty unknown about how he will interpret the role. With filming only just underway, the images are designed more to establish the pairing than to explain the movie's specific character dynamics.

That restraint is appropriate for an early production reveal. There are no story details in the images that clarify the case bringing Crockett and Tubbs together, the criminal organization they will confront, or the personal stakes each man will carry. But the studio has made clear that these are the film's title characters, and its marketing is beginning with their partnership rather than with nostalgia alone.

Joseph Kosinski leads a sizable creative team

Miami Vice '85 is directed by Joseph Kosinski, whose recent work includes Top Gun: Maverick. Kosinski is also producing alongside Dylan Clark, a producer on The Batman. Dan Gilroy and Eric Singer are attached as writers.

The combination points toward a project with considerable blockbuster ambition. Kosinski has built a reputation for polished large-scale filmmaking, particularly where technical spectacle, propulsive action, and precise imagery play major roles. Those qualities are potentially well suited to a property whose original impact was tied so closely to look, mood, momentum, vehicles, locations, and music.

Of course, visual polish alone will not determine whether the reboot lands. Miami Vice needs tension beneath its immaculate surfaces. The title has traditionally worked best when the luxury surrounding its detectives feels dangerous, unstable, or seductive enough to threaten their identities. A modern feature adaptation will need to find room for crime-drama stakes and character pressure alongside the fashion, action, and period atmosphere expected from the brand.

The writing team's involvement is therefore as significant as the director's visual approach. The stated inspiration from the pilot and first season gives the writers a defined starting point, but it does not reveal whether the film will adapt a particular case, build an original story around familiar elements, or selectively reinterpret events and characters from television continuity. Those details remain under wraps.

Villains add more weight to the cast

The reboot has assembled a growing supporting cast around its two leads. John Leguizamo, who appeared in the original Miami Vice television series and is also part of Christopher Nolan's upcoming The Odyssey, was reportedly cast as the new movie's principal villain in September. Walton Goggins, known for roles in Fallout and The White Lotus, was reportedly added as a second villain several weeks later.

Neither actor's character details have been confirmed in the available information, so it is too early to say whether they will represent rival criminal interests, connected figures within one operation, or entirely separate threats. Their reported roles do indicate that the movie is building a more substantial antagonist lineup than a simple one-bad-guy setup might require.

Leguizamo's connection to the original series adds a small but intriguing layer to the casting, though his reported role is not presented as a return to a prior character. Goggins, meanwhile, has demonstrated a capacity for unpredictable and commanding screen presences across very different projects. Together, they could give Crockett and Tubbs adversaries capable of matching the heightened, stylized world the film is expected to inhabit.

A legacy beyond one television series

The new production follows more than four decades of Miami Vice history. The original series helped set a template for prestige-minded, image-conscious television crime drama in the 1980s, and its influence extended beyond the small screen. Its pastel color palettes, tailored clothing, popular-music selections, and cinematic framing became widely imitated cultural signatures.

There has already been a major attempt to bring the property to theaters. The 2006 film starred Colin Farrell as Crockett and Jamie Foxx as Tubbs, offering a much grittier and more contemporary vision of the premise. That movie emphasized the intensity and psychological cost of undercover work rather than simply replaying the series' most familiar iconography. It remains a notable point of comparison, but Miami Vice '85 appears to be taking a different route by returning explicitly to the decade in which the franchise was born.

That choice may be the new movie's greatest opportunity. A period setting allows the filmmakers to lean into the original property's defining textures without having to justify them as retro callbacks in a present-day story. The production can explore the era's specific social tensions, criminal landscape, style, and technology while allowing Jordan and Butler to establish their own screen versions of Tubbs and Crockett.

For now, Universal's first-look photographs are an opening move rather than a comprehensive reveal. They confirm the movie's central casting, show that cameras are rolling, and establish a clear period-crime tone. More information on the wider cast, story, production design, and the exact shape of Kosinski's Miami will likely emerge as the project moves further into filming.

With Miami Vice '85 scheduled for May 19, 2028, there is plenty of time before audiences see whether this new partnership can make the franchise's signature mix of style, suspense, and corruption feel as potent as it did in its original era.