If a Sicario 3 happens, it needs to bring back some important elements that helped make the first movie great, but were left out of Sicario 2. Released in 2015, the original Sicario movie was both a critical darling and box office success, also earning multiple Oscar nominations. While its subject matter of shady government agents working to take down a Mexican drug cartel certainly wasn't revolutionary, Sicario presented viewers with a dark, gritty, but still visually appealing look at the depths some will sink to if it means getting what they want.

Sicario is a movie full of morally grey, or outright immoral, characters, with Emily Blunt's upstanding FBI agent Kate Macer being the only real force for good among the darkness, although her rookie partner Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluuya) was also a decent person. While Sicario will never be mistaken for a feel-good fun time at the movies, it's a suspenseful, relentless crime-drama and action-thriller, and deserving of all the accolades it received.

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In 2018, Sicario: Day of the Soldado was released, but failed to live up to its predecessor. It wasn't a bad movie, but earned a considerably worse critical reception and smaller box office take. Producers have teased a Sicario 3 happening, but if it does, the threequel needs to try to recapture the original's magic.

Sicario 3 Needs To Bring Back What Made The First Movie So Great

Kate holds a gun while walking through a tunnel in Sicario

While Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro did reprise their roles for Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and are both great actors, their presence alone wasn't quite enough to make the sequel match the original. Even the return of writer Taylor Sheridan, while welcome, didn't put Sicario 2 over the top. The logical conclusion as to why is the absence of two vital missing elements that helped make the original Sicario such a terrific movie. Both don't necessarily have to come back for Sicario 3 to excel, but at least one would be preferable.

The first is Sicario star Emily Blunt, whose Kate Macer gave the audience someone to unreservedly like and root for, and also, a character that provided a stark contrast to Brolin's ruthless government agent Matt Graver and del Toro's highly effective assassin Alejandro Gillick. While shows like Breaking Bad prove that a protagonist doesn't necessarily have to be likable or moral to be interesting and captivating, even that provided sympathetic characters like Jesse Pinkman. Without Kate at the center, Sicario 2 took Sicario's darkness and nihilistic outlook up to eleven, and at times felt off-putting in its grimness. While Blunt is an in-demand performer, every effort should be made to get her back for any potential Sicario 3.

The second element is director Denis Villeneuve, which may admittedly be less likely of a prospect, as he's one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in Hollywood at present, and thus always seems to have a project in the works. Still, his guiding creative hand was missed in Sicario 2, which just felt like it was cut from a different cloth, albeit with recognizable characters. Persuading Villeneuve and Blunt, or either one of them, to return for Sicario 3 would instantly make the threequel a more appealing idea, and point to a rebound in quality.

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