Jaafar Jackson has joined the cast of Supermax, an action thriller from Amazon MGM Studios and Miramax that stars Will Smith, according to Deadline Deadline.

Jackson joins previously announced cast members Smith and AnnaSophia Robb. The film centres on two FBI agents, played by Smith and Robb, investigating a seemingly impossible murder inside a maximum-security prison — the kind of locked-room premise that turns a procedural into a pressure cooker.

David Gordon Green is directing from a script by David Weil and David J. Rosen. The producing team spans three companies: Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman of The Picture Company, Smith and Adam Fishbach for Westbrook Studios, with Weil and Rosen aboard as executive producers alongside associate producer Natalie Laine Williams. Miramax's leadership — CEO Jonathan Glickman, President of Film Alexandra Loewy, COO Thom Zadra, and SVP Spencer Ela — also take executive producer credits, as do James Lassiter and Miguel Melendez for Westbrook. CAA Media Finance brokered the deal between Miramax and Amazon MGM.

Amazon MGM is closing a deal for worldwide distribution rights to the film, with plans for Supermax to stream on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories. That pipeline — a theatrical-quality thriller landing on a global streaming service — is the distribution model Amazon MGM has been building across its slate.

For Jackson, the role arrives on the heels of a singular breakout. He played his late uncle Michael Jackson in the Lionsgate biopic Michael, directed by Antoine Fuqua, which grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office and stands as the highest-grossing biopic of all time, ahead of Oppenheimer and Bohemian Rhapsody. Jackson is represented by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.

What makes this casting worth watching is the trajectory. Jackson stepped from a music-family name into a billion-dollar screen performance, and Supermax puts him opposite one of Hollywood's most bankable stars in a genre — the contained thriller — that has historically served as a launchpad for actors moving from one marquee credit to the next. Whether the film itself delivers is somebody else's page. The deal, the talent, and the distribution reach are all in place.