Sicario was one of the best films of 2015, establishing Denis Villeneuve as one of the best working directors, which he further confirmed with last year’s Arrival. What no one expected though, was a sequel.
Despite that, writer, Taylor Sheridan, began work a while ago on the follow up, titled Soldado, while also finding success with both the Oscar-nominated Hell Or High Water and the current Sundance favourite, Wind River, which he also directed.
Collider recently spoke to Sheridan about how a sequel to Sicario even came about, and what ideas he’s got rattling around in his brain:
“One of the producers called me and said, ‘If you were to do a sequel, how would you do it?’ and when he first brought it up I thought,’ Well of course you’re asking me.’ And then I had an idea, and I said, ‘Look you can’t really do a sequel, but I sure would love to see what happened if these guys didn’t have a chaperone.’
Because basically they’re operating within the United States, so I played with some actual laws that exist and found a way that they could operate more or less legally within the U.S. But they had a chaperone. What happens if they weren’t in the U.S. and they didn’t have a chaperone? How bad or good would that work out? You’ve seen Sicario, good isn’t going to factor into it too much”.
We know that Emily Blunt will not reprise her role for the sequel, and that the film is scheduled to follow Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro‘s characters outside the US. Sheridan added what he thought Sicario represented, and how the sequel is, unfortunately, going to prove to be very timely:
“I would say if Sicario is a film about the militarization of police and that blending over, this is removing the policing aspect from it. Unfortunately there is still much to mine in this world and explore creatively. People are gonna think I have a crystal ball — I don’t — but the current political activities are oddly timely to what Soldado confronts”.
Despite Sicario‘s seemingly standalone story, it was a film that captured the state of US foreign policy perfectly and perhaps it’s less of a surprise that there’s more to tell considering how the political climate has changed since the release of Villeneuve’s film a little over a year ago. Soldado will have a lot to live up to, but Sheridan’s talent is hard to deny, and who knows, could turn this into a unique franchise.
#Peace.Love.Sicario
