Josh Brolin says Sicario 3 is getting closer, but Christopher McQuarrie is no longer involved

I never imagined that Denis Villeneueve’s Sicario would become a franchise, but here we are. It’s been six years since the release of the first sequel, Sicario: Day of the Soldado, but the door is still open for Sicario 3.

Despite previously expressing doubt that Sicario 3 would ever get made, Josh Brolin now seems a little more optimistic. While chatting with The Playlist, Brolin indicated that the project is a little further along. “We are—we’re closer. Yes,” Brolin said. “Molly Smith, who is a really good friend, who is one of the producers of that on Black Label—I said something. I said, ‘It’s never gonna happen!’ and it kind of went everywhere. And she was very reactive, which I appreciated. I appreciate reaction. They’re very much focused on wanting it to happen, but we won’t let it happen until there’s a story interesting enough to want to spend that kind of money on it.“

However, Brolin added that Christopher McQuarrie, who was once working on the sequel, is no longer involved. He’s also not sure about Taylor Sheridan, who scripted the first two movies. “Chris [McQuarrie] was involved for a while, but he’s not now,” Brolin said. “And I don’t know about [Taylor] Sheridan. I know him really well, but I don’t know if he’s onboard or not.“

It remains to be seen what Sicario 3 will be about, but producers Molly Smith and Trent Luckinbill have previously indicated that they’d like to bring the whole gang from the first movie back together, including Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, and Emily Blunt. “Our idea is to get the cast back together with Benicio, Emily, and Josh, and we’ve got a great story to tell,” Smith said. “Benicio, by nature of just working with us most recently, has been probably the closest to it at the moment. But we’re keeping all the talent informed. They’ve stayed close to it. Like Trent said, the strike has just slowed us down a bit on this last draft, but I think everybody is very excited. Everyone sort of knows the framework of the story and is very excited to, hopefully, get our shooting draft in order very soon.“