For years, the question surrounding “Sicario 3” wasn’t really whether anyone wanted to make it. Josh Brolin certainly did; producers kept insisting it would happen, and the original cast appeared game to return. The murkier part was whether Taylor Sheridan, who created the franchise and wrote its first two films, would come back to write the third. Well, apparently, he has.
In a new Variety story about Sheridan and his move to NBCUniversal, the trade casually drops a pretty significant “Sicario” update: Sheridan has apparently written the script for “Sicario 3.”
That clears up something that has remained oddly fuzzy for years. When The Playlist spoke to Brolin in April 2024, he revealed that Christopher McQuarrie, who had spent some time working on the project, had moved on. Sheridan sounded like much more of a question mark.
“Chris [McQuarrie] was involved for a while, but he’s not now,” Brolin told The Playlist. “And I don’t know about [Taylor] Sheridan. I know him really well, but I don’t know if he’s on board or not.”
The uncertainty went back even further. In 2023, producers Molly Smith and Trent Luckinbill said Sheridan remained close to the project, but they stopped short of saying he would write it. “He is so busy, and he stays close to it, and will obviously have input, too,” Luckinbill said at the time. Sheridan still had a seat at the table, basically, but nobody seemed willing to say he was actually sitting down to write the thing.
There’s some irony to Sheridan finally doing exactly that. While discussing “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” years ago, he joked to Collider, “I’m not the guy to ask to write a sequel.” He nevertheless wrote “Soldado” after scripting Denis Villeneuve’s 2015 original, and producers have long said Sheridan conceived “Sicario” as a trilogy. He never publicly washed his hands of the franchise, but as his television empire swallowed more and more of his time, a third movie without him hardly seemed impossible.
Brolin gave the project a much firmer pulse this past August when he said “Sicario 3” was “happening” and expected production to begin “soon”. Producer Thad Luckinbill offered a slightly more cautious update afterward, saying discussions continued while pointing to Sheridan’s schedule as an obvious hurdle.
Brolin expects to return as CIA operative Matt Graver, but “Sicario 3” would almost have to bring Benicio del Toro back as Alejandro. “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” doesn’t merely leave his character alive; it ends by explicitly setting up his next chapter. The film jumps forward a year, with Alejandro tracking down Miguel, the teenager who shot him, and asking if he wants to become a sicario.
That final scene plays like a teaser for the third movie, making Alejandro—and by extension del Toro—central to wherever Sheridan takes the story next. Producers have also talked about bringing Emily Blunt back, though they haven’t announced a full cast yet.
The movie still needs a director, too. Villeneuve told The Playlist in 2024 that he wouldn’t return, but added that he would happily watch anything Sheridan wrote.
Well, now Sheridan has written it. More than a decade after the first “Sicario” helped turn him into one of Hollywood’s most in-demand screenwriters, Sheridan has circled back to the world that helped launch that career. “Sicario 3” still needs plenty of pieces to fall into place, but after years of vague updates, false starts, and uncertainty over who was actually writing the movie, at least that part is finally settled.
- Rodrigo Perez
