SOLDADO
A new director, bigger budget, more action, and a darker tone: Sicario 2: Soldado plans on upping the ante
No, not a biopic of the former Spurs striker, you silly billies. It’s the sequel to Sicario!
BEFORE INTENSE CARTEL thriller Sicario had even reached the screens in 2015, a follow-up was already being mooted. Talk of a sequel began “about three-quarters of the way through making the first one,” says producer Ed Mcdonnell. “We loved the story so much and everybody embraced the characters,” he says of the original. Starring Emily Blunt as an FBI agent drowning in murky moral waters, critics and audiences alike were taken by the cartel thriller’s unflinching brutality, gorgeous cinematography and unconventional structure, while it made industry darlings of director Denis Villeneuve and writer Taylor Sheridan.
As talks progressed, though, Villeneuve found himself otherwise engaged on 2049-shaped things. “He wishes he had been available,” says Mcdonnell. “We even talked about him maybe coming back for the third one, should there be one. He’s passionate about it. He said, ‘If I were available I’d be directing this movie tomorrow.’ But we always knew he was going be in the middle of Blade Runner when the script started to come together.”
Sheridan, who has since enjoyed further acclaim with Hell Or High Water and Wind River, wrote Soldado a few months after Sicario wrapped, and the team found a new director to take the reins: Italy’s Stefano Sollima, responsible for hard-hitting crime series Gomorrah, as well as 2015 Mafia thriller Suburra. “Both are really striking crime stories, which translates well to the world of Sicario,” says producer Erica Lee. Of all the directors they met, she says, “Stefano was the most impressive. Not only his body of work but what he had to say about the material. His experience with action and drama and grittiness is what we were drawn to.”
‘Sicario’ is Spanish for ‘hitman’, referring to Benicio Del Toro’s shockingly no-nonsense Alejandro. ‘Soldado’ means ‘soldier’, the sequel focusing on Josh Brolin’s CIA officer Matt. (Emily Blunt’s Kate does not return, her arc complete.) “It is Josh’s story, but it’s very much a two-hander,” says Lee. “Alejandro will always be the soul of Sicario movies. He is the heart that beats within them. He is our protagonist. And antagonist, in a way.”
All involved are adamant, though, that Soldado is not so much a sequel as a standalone story with the same characters. Where Sicario dealt with the drug trade, this one tackles human trafficking, and promises to be appropriately grimmer. “It’s darker,” says Lee, who confirms that, with a bigger budget and scope, it will feature much more action: “This is Sicario on steroids.” We’re pumped.