Even as “Sicario” goes down the unlikely path of becoming a franchise — something in the shape of anthology trilogy — don’t think that the grim tone of the original will be softened for greater mainstream play. It seems that the team behind the sequels, which includes “Sicario” writer Taylor Sheridan, realize that it was exactly the first film’s haunting quality that made it unique. So, for “Soldado,” the sequel to “Sicario” slated to be directed by Stefano Sollima, the idea is to go further with that aesthetic.
“What usually would be a long meeting about what’s this character about, what’s his arc—we didn’t have that [with the studio]. They trusted me to just go do it, and with ‘Sicario,’ which I’m really proud of, it really approaches some difficult subjects. I didn’t want to demean that with the second one. So I really wrote something I double dared them to actually make,” Sheridan told Collider. “Ten times more unsentimental, more vicious and really reflective… It’s funny a lot of people think ‘Sicario‘s about the drug war and the cartels. It’s not. It’s a movie about American policy and the way that we police and [‘Sicario 2’] is that on steroids.”
Even though we’re not getting Emily Blunt back, that sounds potentially intense as hell, and it seems as if Sheridan is really going deeper into the moral gray area of the war on drugs. That certainly explains why the narrative for the second movie is going to pivot toward Benicio del Toro’s “consultant” and Josh Brolin’s shady CIA agent.
This is all news that continues to make us more intrigued with what’s coming in the followup, which is aiming to start production this fall.