Taylor Sheridan somehow found the time to turn the Sicario franchise into a trilogy.
Sheridan’s Sicario, which translates to “hitman” in Spanish, hit theaters in 2015, and featured a star-studded cast of Josh Brolin, Emily Blunt, and Benicio del Toro, among others. It was a smash hit… but its follow up, Sicario: Day of the Saldado, didn’t fare as well. Many blame that on the cast shifting around a bit, and Emily Blunt not returning.
But at the end of the day, both scripts were written by the one and only Taylor Sheridan. And after a whole lot of speculation about whether or not Sheridan would return to write the script for the third Sicario installment, it’s now been confirmed that the prolific writer and director has penned (or is in the process of penning) the third edition of the drug-war-based action thriller.
In a recent story from Variety, Sheridan’s eventual move to NBCUniversal was discussed. You might remember he signed a deal to take his talents there that’s worth upwards of $1 billion (yes, with a “b”), and the film portion of that deal is actually taking effect sometime this year. As for TV shows, Sheridan has to finish out his contract with Paramount, which is set to expire in 2028.
From what it sounds like, the last couple of movies that he’ll be delivering for Paramount are the already announced and highly anticipated Call of Duty film, and in a surprising revelation, Sicario 3:
“Sheridan is returning to his cinema roots soon. He wrote the scripts for Paramount’s upcoming ‘Call of Duty Movie’ and ‘Sicario 3.'”
To be clear, the surprise isn’t that Sicario 3 is happening. Actor Josh Brolin had already broken the news that the “covert task force vs. drug cartel” story was getting a third movie… it just hadn’t ever been confirmed that Taylor Sheridan was returning to write it until now.
There’s currently no director attached to the project. One of the film’s producers, Molly Smith, did hint at Christopher McQuarrie (known for his work on the Mission: Impossible movies) possibly taking the role of director for the third Sicario. The first film was directed by Denis Villeneuve, whom Brolin actually went on to work with in Dune and Dune 2. Villeneuve did not return to direct the Sicario sequel (partially because he’s been busy with the Dune trilogy).
So there’s still plenty of question marks with the Sicario “threequel,” but at least we know that Sheridan is going to be the one working on the script. Even though the second Sicario film wasn’t as successful as the first, it still evidently did well enough for Paramount to green light a continuation of the story.
Now, we’ll just have to wait and see if the cast outside of Brolin – with the two biggest names being Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro – will come back for Sicario 3. Considering the second film focused on Benicio’s Alejandro Gillick character, I’d assume he’d come back if the film ends up being more in line with the first Sicario.
I still don’t know how Taylor Sheridan does it all. He’s currently juggling multiple films and TV shows, and somehow, he always delivers. There’s no doubt that fans will be champing at the bit for more news about Sicario 3.
