30 Years Ago, The Greatest Crime Movie of All Time Was Released (And It’s Finally Getting A Sequel)

The Godfather and Goodfellas are two of the most revered gangster films in the genre’s history, but right alongside them is Michael Mann’s masterful Heat, which is celebrating its 30th birthday today. An epic that devotes an appropriate amount of time to an ensemble cast so that they’re all fleshed out, Heat is action-packed, devastating, and loaded with some seriously great acting. And, while it’s been rumored ever since Mann and Meg Gardiner’s Heat 2 hit booksellers’ shelves back in August 2022, it really does seem as though a film adaptation is moving forward. But even if it never comes to fruition, the original will remain one of the most purely enjoyable and rewatchable crime epics ever made.

But there are some natural difficulties when it comes to bringing Heat 2 to the big screen. Specifically, in terms of casting.

Why Does Casting Make Heat 2 Difficult?

The sequel novel takes place predominantly after the events of the original film. In other words, much of it takes place in 1995 to 1996 (immediately after the events of Heat) and then in 2000. The rest takes place in 1988. Overall, we get two primary focuses. The first is the younger years of Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro), Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), and Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino). The second is Hanna’s continued pursuit of Shiherlis now that he’s already taken McCauley down.

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Of course, Kilmer has passed away, so Shiherlis will need to be recast. But so will Hanna, considering Pacino is now unable to perform in such a physical role (it also wouldn’t make sense to have him looking so different even though a chunk of Heat 2 takes place right around the time of the first movie).

All three of Heat‘s primary cast members were so perfect in their roles that it’s hard to imagine them being replaced, but it is possible. All we know so far is that Leonardo DiCaprio is involved. This makes his first time working with Mann on a film (though far from his first time working on a crime film) as well as the first sequel he’s been a part of since Critters 3 all the way back in 1991.

Who will DiCaprio play? The actor and Mann have yet to figure that out. Hanna is older than Shiherlis, so whoever is playing the cop must be older than the robber. If DiCaprio is playing one of them it’s going to be Hanna, even though he doesn’t quite look the part as much as, say, Adam Driver, with whom Mann collaborated on Ferrari. Like Driver, another name that has long been associated with the project is Austin Butler, who definitely does have the Kilmer look.

Perhaps it works out where Driver plays the younger McCauley while DiCaprio takes on the role of Hanna (including some de-aging tech for the 1988 scenes) and Butler takes over the role of Shiherlis. Whoever ends up playing whom, let’s just keep our fingers crossed that Heat 2 sticks the landing on film as well as it did on the page.