In August 2022, writer and director Michael Mann teamed up with author Meg Gardiner to publish Heat 2, a novel serving as both a prequel and sequel to the filmmaker’s beloved heist movie from 1995. By the following spring, it was announced that Mann will also adapt the book into a feature film, and it was reported in October that Leonardo DiCaprio was “circling” the lead role of Chris Shiherlis, previously played by the late Val Kilmer. DiCaprio has now broken his silence on joining Heat 2, and he gave an interesting statement about how the cinematic version of the sequel will compare to its predecessor.
While discussing his 2025 movieOne Battle After Another and other topics concerning his career with Deadline, Leonardo DiCaprio confirmed his involvement on Heat 2 and had this to say when asked “what are the challenges in continuing the storyline from the revered original”:
This is very much its own movie. We’re still working on it, we’re a ways away from production. It tips its hat to Heat, but it’s an homage, and it picks up the story from there. The book is already out there, so there are no big secrets that I’m divulging. It’s set in the future, and the past, from that pivotal moment in what I think is the great crime noir film of my lifetime.
Heat 2’s prequel narrative takes place in 1988, seven years before the events of Heat when Chris Shiherlis, Neil McCauley and their crew pulling off jobs in Chicago, all while Detective Vincent Hanna is tracking a gang of home invaders in the same city. The sequel time period follows Chris Shiherlis in the immediate aftermath of Heat and all the way into 2000, when Shiherlis is on the run from Hanna since he’s the sole survivor of the bak robbery that went wrong. It’s all reminiscent of The Godfather Part II, and DiCaprio is clearly jazzed to participate in the film version of Heat 2.
I’m with him on this, as CinemaBlend ranked Heat as one of the 100 best movies of the 1990s, due in large part to bringing two heavyweight actors together for the first time, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. And yet, while DiCaprio is a big fan of Heat, it’s also important for him that Heat 2 stands out from the original and doesn’t simply feel like a rehash of what came before. As he continued:
It’s one of those films that just keeps resonating, that we keep talking about, that has been imitated so many times and influenced so many different movies. So, we’re working on it. But it’s certainly exciting, and I think I look at it as its own silo, in a sense. We can’t duplicate what Heat was, so it’s paying homage to that film, but giving it its own unique entity.
Leonardo DiCaprio also mentioned during the interview that he hasn’t actually figured out yet if he will indeed play Chris Shiherlis in Heat 2 or instead take over playing Vincent Hanna from Al Pacino. Playing either character would allow him to be present in both the prequel and sequel eras, whereas whomever is selected to play Neil McCauley will only be around for the prequel story. It makes me wonder if once DiCaprio makes a decision between Shiherlis and Hanna, then Christian Bale will take the other role, unless he’s the one being courted for McCauley.
In any case, I look forward to seeing how the film version of Heat 2 looks with Leonardo DiCaprio in one of these lead roles, regardless of how long it takes to get cameras rolling. Meanwhile, One Battle After Another can be purchased or rented on digital, and one of the actor’s other upcoming movies will see him teaming up with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt under the direction of Martin Scorsese.
