Apple TV+ has released a new trailer for its upcoming chilling crime drama series Dope Thief, and I must say, it looks rather intense and harrowing… and because I can’t help myself, dope. Boasting first-class production values and superb cinematography, the trailer lets us know that Dope Thief is full of the right amount of grit and just enough action to keep us glued to our screens.
Starring Emmy and Tony Award nominee Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta) and Wagner Moura (Narcos), the eight-episode drama follows the life-long friends (and delinquents) as they revel in their life of delinquency… until one day when everything blows up in these crooks' faces.
But Dope Thief isn’t just any run-of-the-mill crook drama — no. Our main characters aren’t just criminals pulling off their stunts to get into gunfights and blow stuff up, or to mess with law enforcement. They’re criminals posing as Philadelphia DEA agents in order to rob small-time drug dealers. Of course, as is usually the case with shows centered on one seemingly perfect heist, things don’t always go as planned. When Henry and Moura’s felons are lured into fleecing an unknown home in the countryside, they find themselves targets on the run after exposing and unraveling "one of the biggest hidden narcotics corridors on the Eastern seaboard," per the synopsis.
“These guys are going to come after us, man,” a frantic Manny Cespedes (Moura) tells Ray Driscoll (Henry) in the trailer. “These people are gonna hurt anybody that we care about,” Rays says.
And he’s right. These aren’t the kind of people who make threats when you wrong them, or who seek apologies. These are the kind of people who seek vengeance through blood, and they aren’t happy until they’ve left a path of dead bodies in their wake.
So, what can we expect from Dope Thief based on the trailer? Easy: Plenty of guns and drugs, plenty of action, shootouts between law enforcement and “bad guys,” plenty of thrills and mystery, and plenty of the lovably funny but endearingly dramatic Brian Tyree Henry. We can also expect to see some boldly blurred lines between cops and criminals, which should easily draw comparisons to 2002’s hit television series/cop drama The Wire.
In addition to Henry and Moura, Dope Thief features an ensemble cast that includes Marin Ireland (Justified: City Primeval), Kate Mulgrew (Orange is the New Black), Nesta Cooper (See), Amir Arison (The Blacklist), and Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible franchise).
Based on Dennis Tafoya’s book of the same name (earlier titled “Sinking Spring”), the series is created by Academy Award nominee Peter Craig, who is known for writing 2010’s The Town, 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, and most recently Gladiator II. Craig executive produced Dope Thief alongside Henry and director Sir Ridley Scott, as well as Richard Heus, Jordan Sheehan, Clayton Krueger, and Jennifer Wiley-Moxley. While Craig wrote all 8 episodes, he will only helm one in his directorial debut. Sir Scott directs the first episode as part of a first look deal between his banner, Scott Free, and Apple Studios.
Dope Thief will drop its two-episode premiere on Apple TV+ on March 14, 2025, followed by new episodes every Friday through April 25.