In April, production company Black Label Media and Lionsgate announced that they were developing a sequel to the hit 2015 drug war thriller Sicario, with some of the principal cast—specifically Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin—expected to return. The door was also open for director Denis Villeneuve to come back as well, but it turns out that he’s too busy with that Blade Runner sequel that everyone’s cautiously optimistic/openly pessimistic about. That left Lionsgate to find a new director, and according to The Hollywood Reporter, it has just hired Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima to direct the Sicario sequel.
Sollima hasn’t done much that American audiences will recognize, but he’s worked on a handful of Italian crime shows like Gomorrah, Romanzo Criminale, and La Squadra, and he directed a movie called A.C.A.B. (which stands for “all cops are bastards”), so it sounds like he has the necessary credentials. As for the Sicario sequel, THR says it will be called Soldado (Spanish for soldier) and that it will focus primarily on Del Toro’s character. Emily Blunt, who starred in the original movie, will not be returning.