The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach is reportedly in final talks to join Michael Mann’s Heat 2 as Kelso, according to TheWrap. Kelso is the mysterious former DARPA researcher and hacker who furnishes Neil McCauley character with the intel he needs to take down his scores. Kelso was played by Tom Noonan in the 1995 original. Noonan passed away earlier this year, in February.

The two-time Emmy winner will join a stacked cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio as Chris Shiherlis (originally played by Val Kilmer), Christian Bale as Detective Vincent Hanna (originally played by Al Pacino), and Stephen Graham in Robert De Niro’s old role as Neil McCauley.

Shooting is reportedly scheduled to begin in November.

Heat 2, which was first released as a novel by Mann and thriller author Meg Gardiner in 2022, serves as both a prequel and a sequel to the events of the original film, which is widely considered to be one of the greatest heist films of all time. Mann has wanted to turn Heat 2 into a movie for some time, resolving in 2023 that he was planning for the project to be his next film.

While the original film was made with Warner Bros., Heat 2 has since ended up at Amazon MGM Studios.

Luke is a Senior Editor on the IGN reviews team. You can track him down on Bluesky @mrlukereilly to ask him things about stuff.