While I enjoyed Denis Villeneuve's SICARIO quite a lot, it wasn't exactly a film which demanded a sequel, which is why it was surprising when news emerged that not one, but two, sequels would be following Villeneuve's tale of drugs and revenge. Called SOLDADO, the new film will follow Benicio Del Toro's Alejandro Gillick and Josh Brolin's CIA agent Matt Graver as they "concern themselves with what is being smuggled across the border between Mexico and the U.S. in the tunnels used to move drugs and illegal immigrants." SICARIO screenwriter Taylor Sheridan is returning to pen the script for the sequel and he recently told Collider that SOLDADO will much more bleak than the first.
Lionsgate understood that they bought something that was a spec [on the first film]. So there was a certain amount of latitude they had to give me [on the sequel]. What usually would be a long meeting about what’s this character about, what’s his arc—we didn’t have that. 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. 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.
As SICARIO wasn't exactly full of moments of cheerful exuberance, I can't imagine how much more vicious that world can get in the sequel. I'm still a little leary about continuing this story, especially as Denis Villeneuve won't be returning to the director's chair, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that Sheridan and new director Stefano Sollima can put together a worthy sequel.