Christian Bale may be joining Leonardo DiCaprio in Michael Mann’s long awaited Heat 2

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Credit: Warner Bros

Director Michael Mann’s Heat 2 is seemingly shaping up its A-list cast with Christian Bale reportedly in talks to join the long awaited prequel/sequel alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, who is said to be joining the film in the role of Chris Shiherlis, played by the late Val Kilmer in the original film (via Deadline).

It’s unclear which role Christian Bale might play in Heat 2. 1995’s Heat stars Al Pacino as a cop obsessed with catching Robert DeNiro’s crew of dangerous bank robbers, with the two forming a strange kind of mutual respect for each other as worthy adversaries. Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, and John Voight originally rounded out the cast.

Heat 2 was originally published as a 2022 novel by Heat writer/director Michael Mann and author Meg Gardiner, flashing back and forth between different periods leading up to the fateful events of the first film and after its violent conclusion. It’s expected that the film will follow this same structure.

Heat 2 has been in the works since before the novel was even released, with Mann having, at different times, mentioned the return of Al Pacino, and the potential inclusion of numerous actors, some of whom, such as Austin Butler, have been rumored to actually be joining the cast.

Though Heat wasn’t necessarily a smash hit on its release, it has since come to be considered one of the most influential movies of its genre, defining what modern cops-and-robbers heist movies have come to look like. Director Christopher Nolan, who worked with Christian Bale on his three Batman films, has cited Heat as a direct influence on his Dark Knight trilogy.

Heat 2 doesn’t have a release date yet. While we wait for more updates, get up to speed with the rest of this year’s best upcoming movies with our guide to 2025’s biggest movie release dates.