Soldado to work as either a prequel or sequel to Sicario

Yesterday we shared news of a follow up to Sicario. It’s called Soldado and we learned what we can expect for the movies sequel. One of the big questions though is how the story will work as a sequel considering the first film closed off the narative. It turns out that Sheridan has a very clever way of working around that problem. Although there will be a continuous theme across both Sicario and Soldado, the plan is for the film to actually work as either a sequel or prequel.

Producer Basil Iwaynk in a recent interview with Collider discussed his thoughts on the high quality of the film’s script and how it can actually work as a complete standalone film in the same world with some of the same characters as either a prequel or sequel:

 You have no idea if it’s before or after [the events of Sicario], if it’s five years—you have no clue. There is no reference at all to the first Sicario, so you don’t know when it happens… Sicario, the world isn’t that specific. It’s just these characters. And frankly we wanted audiences to experience the characters in real-time rather than having an exposition dump saying, ’Meanwhile in Sicario’…

The good news is that for people that haven’t watched Sicario yet (shame on you), it won’t be required viewing for the Soldado. What we should expect though is a lot of the same in terms of the strong story and script behind the movie. It’s a pity Sicario director Denis Villeneuve will not be returning for this second film, but with that director in high demand finishing up Blade Runner 2049 before jumping onto Dune, I guess it’s only fair for the producers to look elsewhere and in Stefano Sollima they have someone whose proven themselves in international films, but yet to make a name in English-language films.

To me, as strong as Villeneuve was in Sicario, the script was a huge strength to that first film and with Sheridan’s ability to weave a tight complex story and tell it in an exciting way, we should be able to expect a high quality experience, even if it might feel a little different.

Last Updated: February 2, 2017