Detective Vigilant

Detective Vigilant is a 2026 American superhero comedy film, produced by Miramax, Troublemaker Studios, and Smashup Productions. Distributed by Paramount Pictures, the film was directed by Spy Kids director Robert Rodriguez and stars Xavier Shaquille, Ice Cube, George Clooney, Ken Jeong, Rob Delaney, and Deedee Magno-Hall. The film follows a young adult named Thomas Travis who becomes a crime fighter to in solving the murder of his mother.

After production on his animated production Millvale, Shaquille began developing Detective Vigilant; he was inspired the Deadpool films of the X-Men film series and Blankman. Shaquille wanted to collaborate with Rodriguez on his film after looking back at his Spy Kids film series and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl; Shaquille wrote the story while Rodriguez was behind directing and screenwriting.

Detective Vigilant premiered in Los Angeles on November 4, 2026, then was released in the United States on November 10. The film was given mixed reviews for its formulaic plot, pacing, and self-referential humor, while praise was towards the cast's performances (Shaquille, Cube, and Magno-Hall in particular). It was fortunately financial successful, earning over $203 million against a $70 million budget. The film was followed by an animated series sharing the same name which lasted three seasons. A sequel, Detective Vigilant Issue No. 2, was released in 2029.

Plot
Residing in the town of Northvile, Arizona, Thomas Travis is a young adult who is a fan of superheroes and Noir movies who lives in an apartment with his adoptive mother Jamie, who is a detective of the Northvile Police Department (N.P.D.). During dinner, Jamie is called to investigate a shootout at the alley; Thomas is brought along on see her in action for the first time. Not long after she goes into the alley to investigate, a gunshot was heard, making Thomas get out of the car and rush into the alley. She finds a shot Jamie laying on the ground unable to utter any words to her son before dying. The next morning, he attends her funeral and mourns her death; he promises to avenge her death by finding the killer and turning him in.

After her death, Thomas had taken over handling the payments of the apartment and keeping it tidy. After reading a Dick Tracy comic book and watching Spider-Man, that is what inspires him to become a vigilante; purchasing a trench coat and fedora and donning a black mask, he becomes the alter ego named "Detective Vigilant". Overhearing a pair of robbers about to rob the local bank, he intervenes and apprehends them after a poor first impression. Fortunately, when world got out later that night, the whole town is elated about his presence after Jamie's death; Thomas takes up the vigilante business and cleans up the streets while confronting every crook if they were behind murdering his mother, which were unfortunately not. As every citizen was praising Vigilant, Jamie's long-time partner, Daron Isadore, who was promoted as chief of police after her death, is less than pleased about Vigilant as he thinks he will taint the N.P.D.'s place in crime fighting.

Returning home after his recent arrest, he ends up discovered by a woman named Caren, the person who called him about the room for rent; after giving her the tour and showing her room, she tells her that she is a fan since he came along. Thomas has Caren promise not to tell anyone about his true identity by letting her work with him as his chauffeur and "woman-on-the-inside". On her first stakeout, they keep an eye out for any criminal activity; they spot a gang of thugs who are entering Northvile City Hall, which has Vigilant follow them inside. Hiding, he spots the gang about to raid the mayor's office to kidnap him. He storms in and takes out the thugs, followed by asking them about the murder which they had nothing to do. When he brings the gang out, he is surrounded by the press and the N.P.D., with the former interviewing him and the latter taking the gang in their custody; Isadore walks up to him and requests he "stay off their territory".

Thomas is at his wit's end on catching and asking criminals on the murder, he wishes he could ask his mother; that inspires him to go near-death by knocking himself out with an aluminum bat. He finds himself in a white void where he finds Jamie there, whom knows about his priority, and suggests he look for clues rather than tell him who killed her; his clue is go back to the where the murder took place. As he heads back to the alley, he finds a gun with the initials "D.I.", which he uses to look up the many residents with those initials through the phonebook and internet, where there are 16 residents in Northville. With Caren surveilling his activity, Thomas has suited up as Vigilant and goes through every civilian with the initials "D.I."; this results in one of the residents phoning the police on him for breaking and entering. Before he could be locked up, he was interrogated by the commissioner Julius Kasity who gives him a chance at solving the murder of Jamie within 24 hours. Vigilant resumes his case, with him interrogating each and every civilian who owns the gun, with little success.

Before he enters Caren's car, he overhears Isadore who had lost his gun; he comes to the conclusion that the gun he possesses is Isadore's and Isadore was responsible. Vigilant shouts his discovery to the N.P.D., leading to Isadore to flee and Vigilant to follow him. He finds him on the roof of the police and corners him with his gun in hand; Isadore reluctantly admits that he killed Jamie out of recognition due to how she became the "top cop" receiving accolades and he became an afterthought to her and the N.P.D. afterwards. Using his explanation to his advantage, he snags his gun from Vigilant and prepares to shoot him, but is fortunately thwarted by Vigilant who kicks him in the groin and punches him off the building, resulting in him landing down on a police car; Vigilant comes down and is thanked by the N.P.D. for revealing the murderer of Jamie and will be forever in their debt. After Isadore was arrested by the N.P.D. for the murder of Jamie and attempted murder, Thomas returns home and knocks himself unconscious again to inform Jamie about him, which Jamie is relieved about and proud of him for succeeding on avenging her. Before he returns to the mortal world, he hugs her goodbye until his time. He goes up to the top of the apartment and reaches the rooftop to stand watch over the city.

In a post-credits scene, Kasity, who turns out to be former head of the OSS, Devlin, has recently retired as commissioner of the N.P.D. and drives out of Northvile. Having reached the city limits, he pulls the gear shift lever which turns his car into a jet. Flying off, Devlin phones someone about Vigilant.

Cast
Additional cast members include director Robert Rodriguez as the Mayor Anders' bodyguard, Wallace Shawn as Thomas' neighbor that lives below him, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Jay Baruchel as the robbers Vigilant apprehends, Justin Roliand and Grey Griffin as a couple that live below the same apartment as Thomas, Alex Borstein as Jamie's sister/Thomas' aunt Rita, Jon Favreau as Jamie's brother-in-law/Thomas' uncle, and Shaquille's mother Debbie Mosley as Jamie's mother/Thomas' grandmother Ann.
 * Xavier Shaquille as Thomas Travis / Detective Vigilant, a laid-back but sweet-natured young adult who takes on an alter ego to avenge his mother Jamie and find the murderer. His name was inspired by the many comic book characters with alliterative names, such as Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Billy Batson / Shazam.
 * Ice Cube as Chief Daron Isadore, a cynical and ignored policeman of the Northvile Police Department who was Jamie's partner before her death.
 * Deedee Magno-Hall as Detective Jamie Jean Travis, Thomas' supportive and doting mother who was the most famous cop on the street of Northvile.
 * George Clooney as Commissioner Julius Kasity, police commissioner of the N.P.D. He is later revealed to be Spy Kids character Devlin, who was undercover.
 * Rob Delaney as Mayor Magnus Anders, recently re-elected mayor of Northvile.
 * Ken Jeong as Officer Terrance, a gung-ho yet hot-tempered policeman of the N.P.D.
 * Sarah-Nicole Robles as Caren, Thomas' new roommate and his ally as Vigilant.

Development
Shaquille had the idea of doing a superhero movie after inspiration from the X-Men film series' Deadpool films for its self-referential humor and Blankman for its affectionate take on the genre. His concept/design of the titular character was mainly based on the film noir detective characters.

The film was shot on the Paramount studio lot with interior sets made for Thomas' apartment and the police department; filming took about nine months. Unlike Rodriguez's previous films, which were made with visual effects, the entire film was filmed with practical effects; the only exception was the car jet in the post-credits scene, which was done by Mainframe Studios.

Animation
South Korean animation studio DR Movie, known for animating a few DC Animated Universe projects, was tasked in animating the comic book sequences.

Music
Shaquille had chosen Christophe Beck as the composer of the film, in contrast from Rodriguez's previous composers Harry Gregson-Williams, Gavin Greenway, John Debney, and Heitor Pereira; the score was released on a soundtrack album titled Detective Vigilant: Score from the Paramount Pictures Film through Paramount Music on November 10, 2026, alongside the film's initial release. Its soundtrack, entitled Songs from the Paramount Pictures Film Detective Vigilant, was released on November 11, a day after the film's release; its lists of songs consisted of "Gangsta's Paradise" by Coolio, "She Used to Be Mine" by Jessie Mueller, "Stressed Out" by Twenty One Plots, "Jump" by Flo Rida featuring Nelly Furtado, "Stay Fly" by Three 6 Mafia, "How to Safe A Life" by The Fray, and "Business" by Eminem (which was only used in the trailer).

Marketing
Shaquille had helped Paramount promote the film in what he thought was "doable". Pepsi, Burger King, and Sun Chips handled food and drinks-based promotions; Hasbro and Minimates were chosen for toy lines; and YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram were behind viral marketing while Paramount handled the rest of the marketing. For television promotions, Shaquille portrayed his character Vigilant for the majority of the marketing.

Release
It was released on November 10, 2026, making it the second superhero film released on a Tuesday after Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019. The film had a premiere in Los Angeles on November 4.

Home media
Detective Vigilant was later released on digital and streamed exclusively on Shaquille's formed Paramount Global streaming service Paramount Prime on December 25, 2026 (Christmas Day), then on Blu-ray, DVD and Ultra HD Blu-ray on January 26, 2027 by Paramount Home Entertainment. The Blu-ray and 4K releases include a short film, entitled Found Job and Lost Time, where Thomas applies for a job at a pizzeria where he delivers a pizza to his old high school girlfriend Rebecca Ophelia (portrayed by Isabella Merced) and spends the day catching up with her.

Box office
The film grossed $92.2 million in the United States and Canada, while it grossed $111.3 million internationally; in total, it had earned $203.5 million.

On its first day of its domestic release, it made $11.8 million, while it made $9.1 on the Monday night previews; it would then make $16.5 million on its opening weekend; it made $21 million on its a week later, as ticket sales went up. On its final days, it ended its theatrical showings at $33.8 million; thus making $92.2 million.

In its international territories, it grossed $69 million on its opening weekend ($17.4 million in France, $11.8 million in South Korea, $9.2 million in Mexico, $10.1 million in the United Kingdom, $8.3 million in China, and $12.2 million in Brazil) and ended its final days in theaters with $42.3 million (15.2 milion in France, $10.6 million in South Korea, $7 million in Mexico, $5.7 million in the UK, $2.4 million in China, and $1.4 million in Brazil).

Critical response
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 32%, with an average score of 4.9/10, based on 322 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Detective Vigilant runs the streets as a "superhero wannabe" movie that doesn't fit well with the big name heroes we know and love." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 50 out of 100 based on 56 critics, indicating "mixed-or-average reviews".

Animated series
An animated series sharing the same name of the film, alternately called Paramount's Detective Vigilant, aired on Paramount Kids from April 13, 2027 to November 20, 2029.

Sequel
With the film's financial success, a sequel was greenlit in the form of Detective Vigilant Issue No. 2, which was released in June 2029.