Miami Vice '85 looks more like Miami Vice '87 in those first look photos

Universal's first look at Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in Miami Vice 1885 is closer to the late '80s aesthetic. Read our breakdown of the official photos.

Update: Well, that was rash of me. My fans got the better of me and I had this reaction to the official Miami Vice photos in '85. While the photos show a darker aesthetic, and thus my reaction to them below, new behind-the-scenes photos have surfaced online that show Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler looking like the TV versions of detectives Ricardo Tobbs and Sonny Crockett, respectively.

In fact, Butler's outfit and sunglasses are similar to the style worn by Don Johnson on the classic TV show. In other words, I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Miami Vice '85! keep going!

If I want to see Sonny Crockett in a gray suit, I'll watch Miami Vice from 2006.

Universal released the first official images today of Michael B. Jordan and Austin Butler in Miami Vice '85 , the big-screen reboot of the classic NBC television series that helped define the big-hair fashion trend of the decade. At first glance, Miami Vice '85 certainly looks cool, but it also feels wrong.

The first two seasons featured his signature pastel color palette, and Don Johnson's undercover detective Sonny Crockett wore expensive linen suits in various bright colors (most famously white with a t-shirt underneath). Philip Michael Thomas' wardrobe as Ricardo Tubbs was always more muted, but he almost always wore a double-breasted suit.

But after two pastel seasons, NBC and the creative team in Miami shook things up.Vice returned for its third season in 1986, embracing a darker color scheme across the board, including in the closet. Season 3 also infamously destroyed Crockett's black Ferrari Daytona Spyder convertible, replacing it with a white Ferrari Testarossa for the final two seasons.

I bring all this up because, based on these first look images, Miami Vice 85 looks nothing like Miami Vice in 1985, when the show was at the end of its first season and the beginning of its second season. It was an unfortunate bump in the middle of the show's legendary pastel phase. That color palette was one of the most talked about elements of the series. To this day, a movie can pretty much sum up 80s pop culture by showing a guy in a white suit with a baby blue t-shirt and everyone knows it's a Miami Vice reference. Hell, GTA: Vice City is a perfect homage to the show's vibe.

Series executive producer Michael Mann turned his 2006 Miami Vice into a contemporary story, notably departing from the show's gaudy color palette. The closest Mann's movie ever came to being visually similar to the TV show that spawned it was when Crockett and Tubbs were dressed in sharp suits, tooling around town in a Ferrari, and undercover in a nightclub.

Michael B. Jordan is Tubbs. Austin Butler is Crockett.

Miami Vice '85 - Now in production.

— Miami Vice '85 (@miami_vice85) October 12, 2026

So you can imagine my surprise when I get my first look at the new Crockett and Tubbs in Miami Vice '85 and more like the incarnation of the characters in later seasons. There's even a rumor that Crockett will only drive the Testarossa in Miami Vice '85. I know this sounds like ridiculous rants coming from someone old enough to know better, but, well, fandom gonna fandom. For me, it's no different than choosing a new Batman or Spiderman costume.

Director Joseph Kosinski has spoken at length about how much of a fan he was of the original series growing up, so he certainly knows what he's doing here in terms of the pastel aesthetic of 1985. If you're going to make a Miami Vice period movie, then fans expect to see the show's icons in its early seasons, not when the show went into decline.

To be honest, I'm more attached to Crockett's appearance here than Tubbs. Tubbs had a beard in later seasons, so it doesn't really bother me, and I can justify the leather jacket Jordan was wearing as the look Tubbs wore when he was still a NY cop before coming to Miami.

But since Miami Vice '85 is adapting the show's pilot and some storylines from its first season, that's all the more reason lifelong fans like me expected the new Crockett and Tubbs to look a little more polished. Maybe they're actually wearing the fashion that the show itself was synonymous with in the 80s, and it's just one of the more muted outfits that Crockett wears at times (given the gold watch, of course, and Crockett and Tubbs' guns seem series-accurate).

What do you think of Crockett & Tubbs look in Miami Vice 85?

If you're going to run a Miami Vice period movie, you can't play scared like you're gambling at a crap table. You have to embrace cleverness. It was a greedy, sad and ambitious era, and the show was basically a pastel noir. Damn, Kosinski, I've been waiting years for a proper 1980s Miami Vice movie. Don't be afraid to embrace all the elements of a show you clearly loved, my fellow Gen X!

If the director and studio were worried that people would laugh at Miami Vice 85, which actually looked like Miami Vice 1985, then I don't know why they would make it. As a fan, I want them to heed Sonny Crockett's words to Don Johnson: "You just gotta learn to deal with the heat, Rico. It's just like life. You just gotta tell yourself, no matter how hot it is, sooner or later a cool breeze will come."