Austin Butler and Michael B. Jordan have been filming aboard Vicious, Gus Morales’s 1986 Wellcraft Scarab 38KV Miami Vice Edition, at Port Newark, New Jersey, for Universal’s Miami Vice ’85.
Footage obtained by Powerboat News shows the Scarab running at speed after dark past a floodlit quay at the port. PBN has identified the boat as Vicious, which has its own Instagram account, @vicious.miami. We understand both actors were on board.
Butler plays James “Sonny” Crockett and Jordan plays Ricardo Tubbs. In the original NBC series the Scarab was Crockett’s boat.
The Cast
John Leguizamo plays the film’s main villain, a cartel boss, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Walton Goggins plays one of his henchmen, according to Deadline. Whitney Peak is reported to be playing the love interest to Jordan’s Tubbs. Michael Irby has been reported as Lt. Lou Rodriguez, Crockett and Tubbs’s commanding officer in the pilot episode.
Roles for Alden Ehrenreich, Camila Morrone, Danny Ramirez, André Holland, Edi Gathegi and Andrew Schulz have not been revealed.
The Boat
PBN has followed Vicious and the production since February, when we rode aboard her out of TNT Marine Center in North Miami. On October 11 we reported that Morales was still in discussions with the production. Since then the boat has gone north by road from Miami for the shoot.
She is one of 33 Miami Vice Edition Scarabs that Wellcraft built and sold to the public between 1986 and 1989. Morales has re-engined her with twin 540ci big-blocks producing 1,300 horsepower combined, against the factory’s 880, and kept the period look.
In May, Lewis Hamilton drove Vicious on Biscayne Bay for his “Vice City Run” Instagram reel. This month Morales added a second 1986 Scarab to his collection, Lady Vice.
The Production
Joseph Kosinski, director of Top Gun: Maverick and F1, is directing from a script by Dan Gilroy. The film is set in 1985 and draws on the pilot and first season of the original series. New Jersey is doubling for Miami in parts of the shoot, including a strip mall in Wayne that has been turned into a mid-1980s Miami street. The film is being shot for IMAX and is due for release on May 19, 2028.
Which Boats Will Feature?
Read our earlier look at the boats that defined the original series and the hardware a 1985-set production will need.
Read the Story
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
