Sicario sequel: Writer Taylor Sheridan discusses the idea behind the follow-up

Last week, Sicario, starring Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro, opened to big numbers during its limited run, averaging $66,881 on six screens, a record for 2015. (The film opens wide on October 2.) The fact that Lionsgate was showing interest in a sequel following Del Toro’s character, the mysterious operative Alejandro, was unexpected considering Sicario’s serious subject matter and prestige credentials — director Denis Villeneuve and cinematographer Roger Deakins — but nevertheless in tune with Hollywood’s insatiable appetite for more.

According to Taylor Sheridan, the writer of Sicario and the man who is spearheading the sequel development, talk of the project began all the way back in the spring, after the film was finished but before the box office receipts started rolling in.

“Lionsgate is very intrigued by the character,” he tells EW. “It wasn’t motivated by the success on six movie screens. It was something that we’ve been discussing for quite a while, that there was more to explore with this character because there was so much left unsaid about Alejandro and his journey and what makes that man.”

While Sheridan wouldn’t go into detail about his plans for a sequel, he did offer some insight into the philosophy behind Alejandro’s story and what kind of tale this will be. “One of the things that it touches on is everyone is offered choices in life: do what feels good or do what is good,” Sheridan said. “You make the wrong choice enough, and then it’s not presented again. Then every choice is bad, and each consequence worse. You fall down this rabbit hole where no matter what you do, suffering is on either side.”

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Though there is interest in seeing more of Alejandro’s story from the studio, an official greenlight for a Sicario sequel is still some ways off. Something in the more immediate future for fans of the film, however, is Comancheria, another Sheridan-penned film, which he refers to as the second installment of a thematic trilogy. Comancheria stars Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine and Ben Foster as two bank-robbing brothers on the run in West Texas and revolves around a thematic through line that starts Sicario and ends with a third feature called Wind River, which is set on an Indian reservation in Wyoming.

“When I wrote Sicario, one of the things that I wanted to explore was the American frontier 130 years later,” Sheridan says. “How much has it changed? How much hasn’t it?”