The gangster is Filipino now. And that changes everything.
So, JB Tadena — yes, that JB Tadena from CW's Kung Fu, the one who's quietly been doing the work for years — just got cast in David Fincher's The Adventures of Cliff Booth. Maybe as Bill Vergara, a mobbed-up Filipino film financier. Maybe not. “Undisclosed role,” they said. Sure.
And no, Netflix still hasn't confirmed the damn thing. But let's not kid ourselves — this movie is happening. Production kicks off July 28, 2025, and runs through December, which is… not short. That's five months of Brad Pitt growling into shadows while Erik Messerschmidt probably does his usual grayscale wizardry. Because who else would it be?
But let's not get distracted. The headline here isn't Pitt or Fincher or the Tarantino tag-on script.
It's the casting of Tadena. And what it says — accidentally or not — about who gets to be dangerous now.
Wait, we're making Filipino gangsters now?
Let's just acknowledge the obvious: Hollywood doesn't really write Filipino characters. They write Asian ones, occasionally — mostly Korean or Chinese. Sometimes Japanese, especially if someone's holding a katana. But Filipino? Unless they're a nurse or a background extra in a war movie, forget it.
So this move — putting a Filipino mobster at the narrative center, and casting an actual Filipino-American actor to play him — should be a big deal.
Except it isn't being treated like one.
There was no grand press release. No self-congratulatory quote about representation. No Variety profile on “Tadena's time.” Just a blink-and-you-miss-it casting note from Deadline, buried under the weight of “Brad Pitt still exists.”
Which, honestly, makes it kind of cooler.
JB Tadena: the quiet weapon
Tadena isn't flashy. He's not a red carpet guy. He's the kind of actor you recognize from something but can't quite place. And that's probably why Fincher cast him.
Fincher doesn't do obvious. He does precision. And Tadena — who's been grinding in martial arts-heavy TV roles and indie side gigs — has that quiet volatility. That you don't see it coming until it's too late energy.
And in a film that's supposedly picking up after Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, with Cliff Booth now a Hollywood “fixer” (read: cleaner, enforcer, maybe murderer-lite?), that kind of calm menace feels like the right fit.
You don't cast someone like Tadena to yell. You cast him to smile while things fall apart.
Fincher's not copying Tarantino. He's dissecting him.
Let's address the inevitable: yes, the script is by Tarantino. Yes, it's a sequel to a Tarantino film. And yes, it stars the same laid-back psycho played by Brad Pitt who once beat Bruce Lee into a car door.
But this isn't Tarantino 2: Foot Fetish Boogaloo. This is Fincher. And Fincher doesn't homage — he autopsies.
So if Cliff Booth feels like a genre piece on the surface (Hollywood noir, gangster flick, fixers and film reels), it's almost certainly going to unravel that surface. Expect paranoia. Misdirection. Probably a few long silences where someone just stares out a window while something terrible almost happens.
And the cast? It's too weird to be comfort food. Carla Gugino. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Elizabeth Debicki. Scott Caan? It's like someone pulled names out of three separate casting sessions and called it fate. Which is probably the point.
Here's the thing…
Maybe Tadena is playing Vergara. Maybe not. But the idea that Fincher's going deep enough into Hollywood rot to include a Filipino mobster — a guy financing films from the shadows, manipulating the system from beneath — says a lot about what story this really is.
Because the fixer story? That's just the hook.
The real meat here is power. Who has it, who hides it, and who no longer has to look like the usual suspects.
And for once, “Asian representation” doesn't mean wise mentor or martial artist sidekick. It means: “This guy might ruin your life, and he'll do it in a custom suit.”
Which, honestly, feels like progress.
