Over the weekend we got an update of sorts from “Sicario 3″ producers Molly Smith and Trent Luckinbill that they were aiming to bring back both Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin alongside confirmed returning franchise star Benicio Del Toro. Now, there are some juicy quotes about who is involved, potentially on the creative side. While continuing their chat with Collider to promote Del Toro’s Netflix thriller “Reptile,” they were able to dish that both franchise creator Taylor Sheridan (“Yellowstone”) and Christopher McQuarrie (“Mission: Impossible – Fallout”) are “partners” on “Sicario 3.” They seemingly didn’t expand upon the roles of Sheridan or McQuarrie, but considering that the former penned the last two installments and essentially created the franchise it wouldn’t be all that surprising if the workaholic writer penned the script or the story.

“But we don’t know who’s going to direct yet. It’s all gonna be about timing. We’ve got obviously a wealth of great partners on it, everybody from Taylor Sheridan to Chris McQuarrie as a partner on it, but it’ll all be about the timing and what aligns with everyone’s schedule.”

As previously alluded to, Sheridan is a busy man overseeing multiple television series and likely might have handed off polishing duties to someone like McQuarrie (still working on “Mission: Impossible 8”), who is also known in the industry as a script doctor. Case in point, McQuarrie helped out with the script to “Top Gun: Maverick” despite not directing and could have a similar role here on this project, if not bigger.

Sheridan being extremely busy was also echoed by Luckinbill, “He is so busy, and he stays close to it, and will obviously have input, too. Then it’s just a question of when we get schedules lined up and all of that starting to have real conversations to see who’s available and who wants to do it. So certainly, I think everybody that’s ever been involved with this has stayed really close and has stayed fans of it. So, we’ll just push forward and see what lines up and who lines up in our window.”

“Sicario 3” is still seemingly without a director, officially, and the talk of schedule would suggest that either of those two would be welcomed as helming the third installment. Whether that happens remains to be seen and will likely take a bit of time.

Having the trio of actors back with Sheridan and McQuarrie possibly being the creative force behind it would very much be a welcomed shot in the arm after that lackluster second film. Of course, the original from 2015 was helmed by French-Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve, who has since moved to tackle two installments of the “Dune” franchise as he’s also in development on a third film based on the second Frank Herbert novel “Dune Messiah.” We still don’t know if Villeneuve will indeed make that third “Dune” film next or could be hypothetically persuaded to direct Sicario 3,” which would likely be a less intense or lengthy shoot in comparison.

SOURCE: COLLIDER