Summary

• Isabela Merced is open to reprising her role as Isabel Reyes in Sicario 3 due to her positive experience making Sicario: Day of the Soldado.
• Sicario 3 has long been stuck in development, but updates late last year suggest the script is being worked on with Emily Blunt eyed to reprise her role from the first film.
• Sicario: Day of the Soldado earned somewhat mixed reviews and performed worse than the first movie at the box office, which is part of why a third movie has struggled to get off the ground.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado star Isabela Merced comments on her return in the long-awaited Sicario 3. After the success of Denis Villeneuve's first film in 2015, Benecio Del Toro's Alejandro returned for a sequel in 2018 alongside Josh Brolin's Matt Graver. Sicario: Day of the Soldado introduces Merced as Isabel Reyes, the daughter of a powerful cartel leader. A third film, tentatively titled Sicario: Capos, has long been in development, but it has yet to come to fruition.

As audiences await news on Sicario 3, Merced reveals in an interview with THR that she would be open to reprising her role in a prospective third movie. While it doesn't sound like any concrete plans are in place for this to happen, Merced has nothing but positive things to say about her experience making Sicario: Day of the Soldado. Check out Merced's full comment below:

“Absolutely. I would be very open to that. We spoke about it, and obviously things change, but I think we spoke about Isabel Reyes going into the Witness Protection Program. [Writer’s Note: Brolin’s character defied his own orders and took Reyes to the U.S. to place her in WITSEC.]

“So I don’t know how she would be involved in another Sicario storyline unless they went out of their way to make that happen, but of course, I would love to be a part of [Sicario 3]. Soldado is still, to date, one of my favorite movies I’ve ever done, and it was one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had. It was insane."

Sicario is currently available to stream on Prime Video while its sequel is streaming on Hulu.

What's Been Said About Sicario 3

Will Another Movie Actually Happen?

Although Brolin previously expressed some doubts regarding a third Sicario movie coming to fruition, producers Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee revealed in September 2023 that development on the sequel is still underway. The producers suggested that a strong idea is in place and that writing on the script had been paused due to the onset of the WGA strike last year. With the strike having ended last fall, work on the script is presumably underway once again.

Another exciting update regarding Sicario 3 came in October, with producers Molly Smith and Trent Luckinbill revealing to bring Emily Blunt back as Kate Macer, in addition to Alejandro and Graves. Kate was instrumental in the first movie, but was notably absent in Day of the Soldado as the story went in a different direction. Not long later, Smith revealed that Mission: Impossible franchise director Christopher McQuarrie is involved in the sequel in some capacity.

Regarding his potential return for Sicario 3, Villeneuve told Sicario: Day of the Soldado reviews were not quite as positive (see chart above). The second movie also experienced diminishing returns at the box office, and these two factors could be why Sicario 3 has struggled to make it out of development.

Source: THR