Initially, it looked like Sicario would be a rare new action movie that wasn’t built to launch a franchise. But then Lionsgate got one whiff of that sweet, sweet drug (movie) money and said, “it’s franchise time, baby!” A sequel went into development with Taylor Sheridan penning the script for the followup to his screenwriting debut. Okay, not all major action film franchises go bad: Some go really, really bad. But maybe there’s hope for a franchise built around Emily Blunt. Oh, what’s that? She has nothing to do with Sicario 2? Well, shit.
No, Sicario 2 will be a standalone film with some new faces, new drugs, and a new director. Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin will both return, with Del Toro’s Alejandro set to step into Blunt’s spotlight. Collider spoke with Sheridan about Sicario 2, and he basically said that his second movie is going to be exactly like his first movie, but bigger! Badder! Manlier! Here are his exact words:
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.
If Sicario 2 is Sicario on steroids, maybe Sicario 3 will be Sicario 2 on crystal meth.