Like many of you, I was a big fan of Denis Villeneuve's SICARIO, but then word came out that a sequel to SICARIO was already in the works and would follow Benicio Del Toro's character. It seemed like an odd move as SICARIO wasn't exactly a film which demanded a sequel, but the project quickly moved forward when Stefano Sollima signed on to direct it. 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." Now, according to Sollima, that sequel will actually serve as the second installment of a three-part anthology.
While speaking with The Independent, Sollima announced that the idea is to make an anthology trilogy set in the same world using some of the same core actors. Now that I've had time to warm up to the idea of a sequel, it certainly seems like an interesting concept, but we'll have to see how SOLDADO turns out. Regarding the sequel, Sollima said:
It's not a real sequel, it's absolutely a standalone movie – a completely different story with just two of the characters that you met in Sicario. The reason that I love [Soldado] is because it's not exactly a sequel; it's something you can catch and enjoy even if you haven't watched the first one.
Adding that "the antagonists are now absolutely the main characters," Sollima revealed how different SOLDADO will be from SICARIO.
I loved Sicario. I feel the movie was quite similar to my approach so, to me, I'm just shooting another movie. Soldado will be much more cinematic than Sicario was; it's got an incredible amount of huge action sequences in there. It will be a different journey in the same world. Even the theme is different – it's not drug dealing, it's more on immigration.
What are your thoughts on SICARIO becoming a trilogy?