John Leguizamo Joins ‘Miami Vice ’85’ as the Villain, and the Casting Has a Complicated Backstory

Joseph Kosinski has spent the past several years building a reputation as one of Hollywood’s most reliable directors of stylish, high-octane spectacle, following up ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ with the racing drama ‘F1.’ His next project trades fighter jets and race cars for speedboats and neon-lit nightlife, taking on one of the most influential crime dramas in television history.

That project is ‘Miami Vice ’85,’ Kosinski’s big-screen reimagining of the 1980s series, inspired directly by the show’s original pilot episode. Austin Butler and Michael B. Jordan are set to star as James Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs, the two stylish undercover detectives navigating the glamour and corruption of mid-1980s Miami.

That cast just grew significantly. John Leguizamo has joined the production as the film’s main villain, with sources indicating he’ll play a cartel boss opposite Butler and Jordan’s leading detectives, according to reporting from both Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter.

Leguizamo’s casting comes on the heels of a genuinely strong run for the actor, having recently earned praise for his performance in Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey,’ where he played Eumaeus, the blind loyal friend to Matt Damon’s Odysseus. That role has apparently helped cement his standing within Universal’s broader roster of talent, with the studio clearly eager to bring him back for another major project.

Beyond ‘Miami Vice ’85,’ Leguizamo has also recently booked roles in the Daniels’ next film, Mike Flanagan’s ‘The Exorcist: Martyrs,’ and the next installment in the ‘Ice Age’ franchise, making this a particularly busy stretch across his career.

The specific nature of Leguizamo’s role adds an interesting wrinkle given the actor’s own public history on the subject of Latino representation in Hollywood. Leguizamo has long criticized the industry for typecasting Latino performers as drug dealers, gangsters, and criminals, and his press tour for ‘The Odyssey’ this past summer centered heavily on the industry’s failure to offer Latino actors fuller, more varied roles.

That context makes his casting as a cartel boss in a film about 1980s Miami notably ironic, representing exactly the kind of role he’s spent years publicly calling out. Whether that tension factored into his decision to take the part, or how the character will ultimately be written and portrayed, remains to be seen once more details about the production emerge.

Leguizamo joins a supporting cast that already includes Alden Ehrenreich, Whitney Peak, Camila Morrone, and Danny Ramirez. The screenplay comes from Dan Gilroy, with Kosinski directing and producing alongside Dylan Clark of Dylan Clark Productions, the team behind ‘The Batman.’

According to the film’s official description, ‘Miami Vice ’85’ will explore “the glamour and corruption of mid-’80s Miami” in an all-new version of the property, drawing inspiration from the pilot episode of the original Anthony Yerkovich-created series that starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas and went on to influence fashion, filmmaking, and pop culture at large throughout the decade.

The film is being shot specifically for IMAX, with production expected to begin around October or November, taking place across locations in New York and Miami. Universal Pictures has set ‘Miami Vice ’85’ for release on May 19, 2028, giving the studio plenty of runway to build anticipation as more casting and plot details continue to emerge.

With Kosinski’s track record of turning stylish, high-concept premises into major box office successes, expectations for this Miami Vice reimagining are already running high well before cameras even start rolling.

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