‘Sicario 3': Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin to Star; Padraic McKinley (‘The Weight’) to Direct, Steven Knight Writing

Whoa, "Sicario 3" is officially moving forward. According to Deadline, Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin are set to return for the third instalment. The original gang is coming back.

Padraic McKinley, who directed this year's "The Weight," is on board to direct from a script by Oscar nominee Steven Knight, suggesting Taylor Sheridan's original draft has been set aside.

Stefano Sollima, who directed "Sicario: Day of the Soldado," was never expected to return. And forget about Denis Villeneuve, who directed the first film and is way too busy with James Bond. McKinley is the fresh new talent who will hopefully energize the IP.

The third instalment, often referred to as "Sicario: Capos," has been in the works since around 2018. That was seemingly Sheridan's script. Has it been completely overhauled? Who knows.

Quite honestly, I'll always be skeptical about making another "Sicario" without Villeneuve. He elevated the original with his direction, alongside Roger Deakins' stunning cinematography. That atmosphere can't be replicated without those two. That said, at least Blunt, who skipped "Soldado," has decided to return, and that's a huge get.

And then there's Knight. Does this guy ever sleep? As far as we know, he's spent the last twelve months writing James Bond 26. He's a talented scribe whose gritty, character-driven style often leans on working-class settings and terse dialogue, and he's built a considerable reputation with credits like "Peaky Blinders," "Eastern Promises," "Dirty Pretty Things," "Locke" and "Spencer."

McKinley's "The Weight," his debut, was basically "Sorcerer" in the Pacific Northwest: swap the dynamite for gold bars and the jungle for the woods. It stars Ethan Hawke as a WWI vet doing time on a prison chain gang three years into the Depression. He's given an ultimatum: carry a load of gold out of a mining camp before FDR confiscates it all, and you walk. Simple enough. Except it's Point A to Point B through miles of nasty terrain. There's a rope-bridge sequence and an underwater log accident that had me genuinely gripped. My main issue is that McKinley bails on us in the final stretch for a tidy resolution that would have Friedkin rolling in his grave. Still, that's just the ending, and there are enough thrills here to forgive its flaws.

Based on "The Weight," McKinley knows how to wring tension, which is exactly what made the first "Sicario" so nerve-shredding. Whether he can match Villeneuve's slow-burn dread is another question, but with Blunt, del Toro and Brolin back together and Knight on script duty, there's real reason for cautious optimism. No word yet on when cameras will roll or a release date, but stay tuned. More to come.