Sicario 3 may happen but expect to see a different director at the helm. Denis Villeneuve directed the first Sicario to great critical success, but his commitments on Blade Runner 2049 prevented him from returning for the sequel. Stefano Sollima stepped in and handled Sicario: Day of the Soldado which has done pretty well so far, all things considered. The hope is that a third entry will get made in the unlikely franchise. However, in a recent interview, Sollima has pretty much taken himself out of the running to tackle it and strongly suggests that there will be new blood in the director's chair.

Stefano Sollima made his English language debut with Sicario 2 and it's his first movie for a big studio. Traditional thinking would dictate that he would be right in line to do the next movie, should it get the green light, but Sicario isn't a typical franchise. The first movie was a critical darling and very much stood on its own. Not only that, but it only made $84.9 million worldwide. That's not exactly a franchise number. And based on Sollima's comments, he's well aware that this isn't your typical series of movies and wants to see that continue with Sicario 3. Here's what he had to say about it.

"Every movie in these series needs to be a standalone that stays in the same world. I'd love to watch another chapter of Sicario, but it should be from a different director who has their own specific style. You shouldn't have more than one film from the same director. Then it would be too much like a real franchise."

Denis Villeneuve didn't necessarily rule out circling back to the franchise for a third entry. Though, he's going to be quite busy directing the Dune reboot, which he has very ambitious plans for and is planning on doing it as a two-movie sci-fi epic. With that in mind, it looks like another director will get a shot at taking on the seedy world of drug cartels.

As it stands, Sicario: Day of the Soldado has grossed $34.6 million worldwide working from a $35 million budget. That may not seem great, though the movie still has quite a few international territories to open in and should do decent in its second weekend at the box office. With that in mind, it's not terribly hard to imagine that Sony will try and squeeze at least one more movie out of this.

For what it's worth, a pretty clear path to Sicario 3 was carved out at the end of the sequel. Whether or not Sony decides to follow that up remains to be seen. Then the question becomes, what director will step in and shepherd the finale of this trilogy? If the same pattern holds true, it probably won't be a big name, but feel free to speculate wildly for now. This news comes to us courtesy of Variety.