Craig would know about “the right kind of grit,” having previously penned the screenplay for Ben Affleck’s Boston-set crime drama The Town and 2022’s The Batman.
“Boston’s got a little too gentrified in some sections. Even when we were doing The Town, we were really doing a version that was really about eight years earlier than when we were saying it was.”
The cast concurs with Craig’s estimation, with Theresa Bowers actress Kate Mulgrew asserting: “It’s a funny place, Philly. You know, it’s North meets South. The story couldn’t have happened anywhere else. I found Philadelphia to play a very, very important character in this series.”
Other important characters in the series, of course, include the two leads: Moura and Henry, both of whom currently on ascendant career paths in film in television. Moura was introduced to most English-speaking audiences by playing drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in Netflix’s Narcos and just starred in Alex Garland’s Civil War. Henry recently wrapped up his multi-season role of rapper Paper Boi on Atlanta and is set to continue his role as Miles Morales’ father in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse. For Moura and Henry, the biggest appeal of Dope Thief was one another.
Moura came to the role after shooting already began (THR has reported original co-star Michael Mando was fired for a violent altercation with another actor on-set), creating an unusual dynamic for two characters who are supposed to be life-long friends.
“Brian called me and I really liked the conversation that I had with him,” Moura says. But [before our first scene] I was like ‘We don’t know each other. Can we have like, 10 minutes together?'”