Michael B. Jordan’s Thomas Crown Affair Will Test the Public’s Appetite for Gentlemen Thieves

After his Oscar win for last year’s triumphant Sinners, no one questions Michael B. Jordan‘s star power. And anyone who saw his striking directoral debut Creed III knows that Jordan has an incredible eye. And yet, we can’t help but come away from the trailer for his latest movie, The Thomas Crown Affair, with a few questions.

The trailer looks incredible, splitting between Jordan’s debonair Thomas Crown flirting with an insurance investigator played by Adria Arjona and shots of him scaling buildings and racing through the streets. Like the (somewhat sleepy) 1968 original, starring Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, and the steamier 1999 version with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo, this 2027 take on The Thomas Crown Affair promises a spectacular, sexy time. However, this latest take on a gentleman thief comes at a time when the public may be sick of rich people’s adventures altogether, even when they target other members of the 1%.

Based on this trailer and early reports, Jordan’s update on The Thomas Crown Affair will follow the same basic model set by the 1968 movie, directed by Norman Jewison and written by Alan R. Trustman. Thomas Crown is a bored billionaire who passes the time by committing high-profile heists. His actions eventually draw the attention of a seductive investigator, who plays a game of cat and mouse with Crown. The sexual chemistry between the two ups the stakes of their adventures, with Crown trying to pull off his next job and the investigator attempting to thwart him.

Even more so than the 1999 movie, which had an actual James Bond in it, the 2027 update appears to inject some superspy energy. Jordan’s Crown spends plenty of time in a black tux, and he and Arjona visit some exotic locales. Furthermore, he butts heads with a fellow-rich man played by Kenneth Branagh, who certainly knows how to give a Bond-villain level performance.

Pleasurable as all of these qualities are, one has to wonder how much audiences want to see a rich guy steal things, given how much of our culture has been harmed by bad behavior from rich guys. Just take a look at any of our articles about David Ellison firing James Gunn, a relatively low-stakes action, and you’ll see that our patience with the upper classes has waned. Sure, satires and critiques of the rich still have traction—just see the buzz around HBO series such as The Gilded Age, The White Lotus, and Succession. But all of these works present the upper classes as objects of derision, not as fantasy surrogates.

That said, the trailer for Jordan’s Thomas Crown Affair does suggest something of a twist, as does the film’s tagline: “Revenge is a work of art.” The brief image of Crown staring at a building house, and his clear personal grudge against Branagh’s character suggests that he may come from more humble origins. Perhaps his opulence is a persona adopted to strike back against the actually rich Branagh character, injecting some class consciousness into the thriller.

Will that critique work, especially when the trailer indicates that we viewers are supposed to swoon at Crown’s playboy lifestyle? We’ll find out when The Thomas Crown Affair begins next spring.

The Thomas Crown Affair comes to theaters on March 5, 2027