‘Sicario’ Sequel Gets a Title and Director, But No Emily Blunt

As weird as it sounded that a movie like Sicario, a taut slow-gurgling thriller that is a fine specimen of cinema on its own, was getting a sequel, it’s still actually happening nonetheless.

The latest update on the Lionsgate sequel comes with some disappointing and some reassuring news. First the bad: The sequel to Denis Villeneuve‘s Sicario won’t feature Emily Blunt reprising her FBI agent Kate Macer. Now the good: It won’t be called Sicario 2, or 2icario thankfully, which was never even an option, but I still feared it as a possibility in our sequel-obsessed world. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the sequel will be titled Soldado, the Spanish word for solider. Italian director Stefano Sollima, best known for the Gomorrah TV series, is in talks to helm the new film, which will follow Benicio Del Toro‘s hitman character Alejandro Gillick.

It’s a major missed opportunity that Blunt won’t return for the movie, especially since her character offered a great portrait of a strong woman holding her own within the pressurizing chaos of the male-dominated worlds of police enforcement and the cartel. I personally found her to be underused and her character under explored in the film – though she still gave an exceptional performance channeling terror and restraint. My biggest disappointment with Sicario was that despite being marketed as a crime thriller about a woman (she was on the front of the poster, after all), it ended up being much more around the men around her, shoving her to the margins. A sequel would offer an ideal opportunity to bring Kate back to explore what happened with following her not-so-harmonious ending with Del Toro's Alejandro, especially if their paths were to cross again.

But at least the new movie will have some familiar faces with Del Toro and Josh Brolin reprising his CIA agent Matt Graver. It’s also a shame Villeneuve won’t be on board, though he is pretty busy with Blade Runner 2 and his new Jake Gyllenhaal project. Green Room director Jeremy Saulnier was previously tapped to take on the sequel, but couldn’t due to scheduling issues. The first film’s screenwriter Taylor Sheridan is penning the script for the new movie however, which is promising.