Tom Cruise’s Miami Vice Villain Rumor Just Took a Dramatic Turn
Tom Cruise’s rumored turn as the villain in Joseph Kosinski’s Miami Vice reboot just kicked into overdrive, thanks to a major update revealed on The Ringer’s podcast The Big Picture. Here’s the latest on whether Cruise is truly headed for the dark side of Miami.
Well, this one got Hollywood Twitter in a tizzy for about five minutes: recently, a rumor started swirling that Tom Cruise was suiting up to play the villain in Joseph Kosinski's Miami Vice reboot. Sounds wild, right? But as quickly as the internet grabbed onto that idea, it crashed just as fast—here’s what really happened, with all the insider gossip boiled down to the facts.
The Tom Cruise Villain Rumor: Who Started It and Who Shut It Down
The Cruise-as-villain rumor kicked off thanks to 'insider' Daniel Richtman, who’s usually pretty solid but also not immune to wishful thinking. Basically, he said Cruise was being eyed for the bad guy slot in Miami Vice, a film Michael Mann is producing and Joseph Kosinski is directing.
The latest episode of The Big Picture podcast addressed the Cruise whispers head-on. Host Sean Fennessey and Bill Simmons made it clear they didn’t buy it, bluntly stating it didn’t 'pass the sniff test.' Fennessey went a step further and claimed the rumor had actually been 'debunked' by someone close to him—someone who’d know. That pretty much puts a pin in it, folks.
– Sean Fennessey, The Big Picture Podcast
So What Do We Know About the Miami Vice Reboot?
- Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick, Spiderhead) is directing the new Miami Vice movie.
- The screenplay is by Dan Gilroy, working from an earlier draft by Eric Warren Singer.
- Michael Mann—who created the vibe of the original TV show and directed the 2006 film—is on board as a producer.
- Dylan Clark (The Batman, the Planet of the Apes movies) is also producing.
- Nothing official about the cast yet, but rumors have Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler somewhere in the 'talks to star' universe. Take that with the same grain of salt as the Cruise rumor.
Quick Refresher: Why Does Miami Vice Even Matter?
For the uninitiated: Miami Vice was a massively influential TV crime drama that landed in 1984. It followed Miami undercover cops Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Rico Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas), and basically invented the cool, pastel-suit cop show template. The show ran for five seasons and got rave reviews back in the day—largely because it wasn’t afraid to let 1980s New Wave culture crash into the traditional cop procedural format.
Michael Mann ran the show, then rebooted it in 2006 with a movie starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell. That film got roasted by critics when it landed, but weirdly, it has since turned into a cult favorite for people who like their crime flicks moody, neon-lit, and just a little bit empty inside.
What’s Kosinski Doing Right Now?
After riding high with Top Gun: Maverick (which, reminder, was gigantic), Kosinski made Spiderhead for Netflix—less of a hit, but hey, nobody bats a thousand. He’s currently working on an F1 racing movie with Brad Pitt and Damson Idris, set for a June 27, 2025 release.
The Bottom Line
At this point, the Tom Cruise villain talk for Miami Vice is basically dead in the water. So if you were hoping for an Ethan Hunt–gone–bad moment set to a synth soundtrack, maybe don’t hold your breath. But with Kosinski and Michael Mann involved, and buzz about Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler, this reboot still has plenty of room to surprise us—once something real actually happens.