‘Sicario Day of the Soldado’ is ‘more severe’ says Josh Brolin, Benicio del Toro promises surprises

One of the biggest surprises of 2015 was the drug cartel drama, Sicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve and starred Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin. Now the follow-up, with the two main stars returning, will arrive next month – check out some details below and the new poster for Sicario: Day of the Soldado.

Last week at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Collider spoke with Benicio Del Toro backstage at the closing night Awards ceremony, promoting the Sicario sequel, directed by Stefano Sollima, as well as receive the “CinemaCon Male Star of the Year Award” from The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO).

Del Toro confirmed a third film in the series, promising plenty of surprises and “Oh s**t” moments and praise for all of the creators involved.

Taylor Sheridan’s fantastic script kept audiences on the edge of their seat and he returns to pen the follow-up.

Brolin told Collider that: “I think it’s just more severe, man. All the way around. I think the characters are more severe. I think the movie is more severe. I think it’s just much bigger. It’s just a bigger scope film.

“Like I said, when I saw it it was like Sicario felt like a small movie to me, even though it was a very intimate movie. I’ve always said I don’t understand why bigger movies can’t be just as intimate, if not more intimate. Why do they have to be less emotional? I think Soldado‘s a perfect example of that. I think it’s extremely emotional. I think it’s extremely tense and it deals with similar subject matters.”

In the sequel, the drug war on the U.S./Mexico border has escalated as the cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the US border. Federal agent Matt Graver (Brolin) re-teams with the mercurial Alejandro (Del Toro) join forces to fight the war.

The film picks up with Del Toro’s revenge-fuelled Alejandro when he’s “hired again by CIA operative Matt Graver (Brolin) to start a war between dueling cartels by kidnapping Isabela Reyes (Isabela Moner), the teenage daughter of infamous kingpin Carlos Reyes. When the mission is exposed, and Graver orders Alejandro to terminate Isabela, the killer’s cold façade cracks.”

Jeffrey Donovan, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Matthew Modine and Catherine Keener also star. Emily Blunt is not returning (she was cast as Mary Poppins in Disney’s new film due at Christmas).

Sicario: Day of the Soldado also stars Catherine Keener and Matthew Modine and opens in theaters on June 29, 2018.