Sicario 3 will follow Soldado to complete an 'anthology' trilogy of standalone films

The director of 'standalone' sequel Soldado confirmed plans in an interview with The Independent

Director Stefano Sollima has confirmed that plans are in motion to make a third Sicario film before cameras have even started rolling on the confirmed follow-up Soldado.

Speaking to The Independent, the Italian filmmaker revealed: "The idea is to make three anthology movies with some of the core actors and [set] in the same world.

He backed up this notion by stating that Soldado - billed as a follow-up to 2015 cartel drama Sicario - will share only characters, and not much else.

"It's not a real sequel," he continued. "It's absolutely a standalone movie - a completely different story with just two of the characters that you met in Sicario. "The reason that I love [Soldado] is because it's not exactly a sequel; it's something you can catch and enjoy even if you haven't watched the first one."

Referring to the screenplay, penned by returning screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, he added: "The antagonists are now absolutely the main characters."

Sollima is, of course, referring to Benecio del Toro's hitman Alejandro Gillick and CIA officer Matt Graves (Josh Brolin).

Emily Blunt, whose character Kate Mercer led Denis Villeneuve's original, will not be returning; while many assume this to be due to her recent casting in the planned Mary Poppins reboot, Sollima's comments suggest her role was never intended to be continued in Soldado.

Speaking about the challenges of taking the reins from Villeneuve, Sollima had this to say:

"I loved Sicario. I feel the movie was quite similar to my approach so, to me, I'm just shooting another movie. Soldado will be much more cinematic than Sicario was; it's got an incredible amount of huge action sequences in there. It will be a different journey in the same world. Even the theme is different - it's not drug dealing, it's more on immigration."

Sollima's new film, crime drama Suburra, is released 26 June; his previous credits include acclaimed Italian mob series Gomorrah.

Original director Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy) is currently hard at work making Blade Runner 2 with Ryan Gosling, Harrison Ford, and House of Cards' Robin Wright.

Read our full interview with Sollima here.