Austin Butler Just Became Sonny Crockett in the First Miami Vice ’85 Set Photos, and He Was Made for This

The pastels are back, and so is the badge. Monday’s first set photos from Miami Vice ’85 show Austin Butler fully transformed into Detective James “Sonny” Crockett, and fans of the iconic 80s series are getting exactly the revival they have been waiting for.

Butler, 35, was spotted filming on October 12, 2026 outside Jerry’s Liquor in Wayne, New Jersey, wearing the look that made Don Johnson a style legend: a light blue shirt with white trousers. Additional photos showed him stepping out of a white convertible in a crisp white suit. If you squint, it is 1985 all over again.

What the First Set Photos Show

The candid shots, snapped by Backgrid photographers and shared widely online, mark the first real look at Butler in character since production began. He was joined on set by co-stars Danny Ramirez and Dominic Sessa, with Walton Goggins also spotted on location later in the afternoon.

Here is the fun part: while Ramirez’s casting was announced back in August, Sessa’s name had not been publicly attached to the film before these photos surfaced. The set photos effectively revealed a new cast member to the world.

Noticeably absent from the candid shots was Michael B. Jordan, who plays Crockett’s partner Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs. But Universal made sure nobody was left guessing: the official Miami Vice ’85 Instagram account dropped the first official portraits of both leads on the very same day.

The Official First-Look Portraits

The studio-released images are a different beast entirely. Jordan appears as Tubbs in a long black leather coat, staring down the camera with cold confidence. Butler’s Crockett is caught mid-action in a gray jacket, gun raised, a shiny gold watch on his wrist. Each portrait carries the character’s name in bold lettering alongside the film’s logo.

“Michael B. Jordan is Tubbs. Austin Butler is Crockett,” the official account posted. “Miami Vice ’85, now in production.”

The two images are a deliberate nod to the original series’ sense of style, even as they hint at a harder edge. Between the sleek tailoring and the on-location shots, the film appears to be aiming for the same mix of cool and danger that defined the franchise.

Who’s Who in the Reboot

The ensemble behind Jordan and Butler is genuinely stacked. The cast includes Alden Ehrenreich, Whitney Peak, Camila Morrone, Danny Ramirez, John Leguizamo, Andrew Schulz, Edi Gathegi, Walton Goggins, Andre Holland, Michael Irby and Dominic Sessa.

Leguizamo, who made his television debut on the original Miami Vice back in 1986, is reportedly playing the film’s main villain, described as a cartel boss. Goggins joined recently as a second villain, while Irby is expected to play Lt. Lou Rodriguez, head of the Metro-Dade Police Department’s Organized Crime Bureau.

Ramirez’s involvement has a nice personal touch. The Top Gun: Maverick actor grew up in Miami and shared his casting news on Instagram with the caption “I’m coming home.” He will also reprise his role as Joaquin Torres, aka Falcon, in Avengers: Doomsday this December. For more on Marvel’s big December event, see our Avengers: Doomsday Comic-Con Malaga coverage.

The Dream Team Behind the Camera

If the cast is the hook, the crew is the guarantee. Joseph Kosinski, the director behind Top Gun: Maverick and F1, is at the helm. The screenplay comes from Dan Gilroy, the writer of Nightcrawler and Andor, working from an earlier draft by Eric Warren Singer, based on the characters Anthony Yerkovich created for the original show.

Kosinski has also reunited with his Maverick cinematographer Claudio Miranda and production designer Jeremy Hindle, and the film is being shot for IMAX. The story is inspired by the pilot episode and first season of the NBC series, diving into what the studio calls “the glamour and corruption of mid-80s Miami.”

42 Years After Crockett and Tubbs First Walked On Screen

The original Miami Vice premiered on NBC on September 16, 1984, and ran for five seasons until 1989. Don Johnson played Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas played Tubbs, two undercover detectives whose pastel suits, neon-lit stakeouts and pulsing synth soundtrack basically invented the look of the entire decade. Johnson is now 76.

The series turned its two leads into style icons, and its influence on fashion, music and filmmaking is still being felt. Michael Mann, who executive produced the show, later made his own big-screen version in 2006 with Colin Farrell as Crockett and Jamie Foxx as Tubbs, though that one traded the neon for a grittier modern crime procedural.

This version is going back to the source: the 80s. The mid-80s setting means the fashion game will be front and center, much like the red carpet moments we cover at Paris Fashion Week. Expect the pastel suits, the no-socks-with-loafers energy and the aviators to be everywhere.

What to Watch For

The film was originally dated for August 2027 but is now scheduled for May 19, 2028, in theaters via Universal. Filming began this month in Wayne, New Jersey, with production also planned for New York City and Miami.

Both leads arrive with serious momentum. Jordan recently won the Academy Award for best actor for Sinners and is directing and starring in The Thomas Crown Affair. Butler, meanwhile, is coming off an awards-season run of his own and will next appear in A24’s Enemies opposite Jeremy Allen White.

The development road was long. Universal announced the reboot in April 2025, Jordan and Butler entered negotiations the following fall (Glen Powell was also in the mix for Crockett), and both were confirmed in April 2026 when the film was retitled Miami Vice ’85. Eighteen months of casting and pre-production later, the cameras are finally rolling.

From the first set photos to the official studio portraits, one thing is already clear: this reboot is taking the style as seriously as the story. If the pastels are this good in grainy paparazzi shots, wait until they hit IMAX.