Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for Sicario 2: Soldado. The sequel to the Denis Villeneuve thriller was unexpected in many ways, since the original story felt like a self-contained thing and a drug cartel/US foreign policy thriller didn’t feel like the start of a franchise. But here we are.
Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin return in the same roles, but there’s no Emily Blunt – screenwriter Taylor Sheridan (Hell Or High Water, Wind River) couldn’t find an organic way to bring her character back – and Villenueve does not return in the director’s chair. The film will be helmed by Stefano Sollima (Gomorrah).
The sequel has been dubbed “more severe”, and this time around, the drug war has escalated to the point that cartels are trafficking terrorists across the border, so Del Toro and Brolin’s characters are asked to intervene, and this time they’re being let off their leash.
The trailer above is quite superb, continuing the confusion and dread that enveloped Sicario, only this time with a little more focus on Del Toro’s character, who is mostly the reason the film exists, as he looks to be being turned into some sort of badass anti-hero after his gritty but relatively small role in the first film.
With Sheridan back writing the screenplay, and after seeing this trailer, we can keep our hopes high that Soldado won’t just be a cash-in sequel. The film also stars Catherine Keener and Matthew Modine, and opens in cinemas on June 29, 2018.
#Peace.Love.Soldado
