Since good things come in threes, Sicario fans have spent the last five years or so imagining how nice it would be to have the thriller film series wrapped up with a third entry that takes it to the next level. Our spirits were lifted last month when all of a sudden we got news that a script was being written. While talking to Collider in a spoiler-filled conversation about their Netflix film Reptile, producers Molly Smith and Trent Luckinbill revealed that not only is Sicario 3 “gonna happen,” but also that it’s further along than we’ve imagined.

During the interview, Smith and Luckinbill told Collider‘s Editor-in-Chief Steve Weintraub that the script of Sicario 3 is very close to a final draft. Work on the script earlier this year was paused in support of the writers’ strike, but after the WGA managed to negotiate a deal with the AMPTP a draft of the final script is already being worked on. Luckinbill also mentioned that the plan was always to do at least three movies:

“The strike slowed us down a little bit, but we’re pretty close to being able to pull the trigger on that and really start lining up dates. We’re super proud of it. Working with Taylor [Sheridan, who wrote previous two movies], we always sort of envisioned this, at least sort of at a minimum, a three-part thing. But yeah, our idea is to get the cast back together with Benicio [Del Toro], Emily [Blunt], and Josh [Brolin], and we’ve got a great story to tell.”

Emily Blunt’s Return on ‘Sicario 3’ Would Significantly Raise The Stakes

Sicario 3 could certainly make it feel like the story came full circle, but the return of Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) to the franchise would also make for excellent conflict. In Sicario, she played Kate Mercer, a by-the-book FBI agent who is abhorred at discovering what the U.S. government allows officers to do at the Mexican border. This puts her in the line of fire as a potential whistleblower, and her return makes the audience instantly worried for her safety throughout the whole movie.

It’s also important that the script for Sicario 3 took this long to be written because it suggests that the project was heavily thought over. Smith added they “know the pressure of getting it right,” and that’s why they decided not to rush the creative process. She also teased the upcoming movie a little bit and called it “epic” and “worthy of the third.”

“We have a script we’re reworking right now, but we’re getting very close. We feel very confident we’re going to crack it. I would say we know the pressure of getting it right, so we’re not rushing that process. But we are very confident that we’re going to crack the shooting draft, hopefully very soon, and be able to get the whole band back together because the story is epic, and it’s worthy of the third.”

With the producers already looking to line up dates, we may get further production news once the AMPTP offers the still-striking SAG-AFTRA an acceptable deal.

Finally, if you missed it, we broke the news that Christopher McQuarrie is working on Sicario 3.

via Collider