Del Toro and Brolin are going to start a war. With everyone.
There are often studios that try to make a sequel to a good thing that just doesn’t need a sequel. Take for instance Jaws or Jurassic Park. Those are just classic stories that got way too many sequels. Then you have ideas like a sequel to Gladiator and no one can even begin to imagine that without the main characters. Sicario 2: Soldado is that later type of sequel since it just has no business existing.
Sicario 2: Soldado will not have Emily Blunt, Roger Deakins, or Denis Villeneuve, but there are some returning faces here. Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro will be returning to the picture, as will writer Taylor Sheridan. Since every successful picture has to be ‘a saga’ nowadays, Sicario 2: Soldado will continue the story from the angle of Brolin and Del Toro’s characters since Blunt is sitting this one out. The film will be directed this time by Stefano Sollima and will lean heavily into the action part of the story as opposed to the more cerebral story from the first. It is also being positioned as a Summer action movie since it is releasing in June as opposed to the more adult fare window of September. This is not the Sicario you remember.
There are no rules this time as Del Toro and Brolin will do whatever it takes to get the job done. The loss of Blunt in this sequel is huge, there is little doubt about that, but if you are making a star vehicle for actors like Del Toro and Brolin it could be far worse.
Here is the official synopsis for Sicario 2: Soldado:
In Sicario 2: Soldado, the drug war on the US – Mexico border has escalated as the cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the US border. To fight the war, federal agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) reteams with the mercurial Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro).
Sicario 2: Soldado opens in theaters June 2018.