Josh Brolin has revealed that Sicario sequel Soldado is "much bigger" than the first movie, and we should be prepared for a "severe" and "extremely emotional" ride.
It's safe to say a sequel to the critically-acclaimed 2015 movie – which focuses on the war on drugs on the US-Mexico border – was not entirely expected.
Nevertheless, writer Taylor Sheridan has returned to pen the follow-up, though original director Denis Villeneuve, who is now best-known for Blade Runner 2049, has been replaced by Stefano Sollima.
Brolin is also back as Matt Graver alongside Benicio del Toro as Alejandro, though Emily Blunt's Kate Macer won't be involved. Brolin has now revealed that he was initially sceptical about pulling off a second outing, but was won over in the end.
He told Collider. "When I first saw it I was like, 'OK, it's a good movie and I think we need to trim some things. We need to do this, and this, and that to it.'
"Everybody else had their notes and then when they saw the final cut it's a really good movie. I'm really excited about it. I was actually surprised at how good it turned out."
Comparing it to Sicario, the star continued: "When I saw [Sicario], I said, 'This is a really f**king good movie.' When I finished the movie, I thought it was going to be okay.
"I had seen Denis's movies. I knew he was a great director, but not everybody's perfect and not everybody can put a good movie together no matter what their intentions are, but when I saw Sicario I didn't know what happened. I was like, 'I know we accomplished a good movie, but why don't I remember this?'
"I kind of felt the same way [with], and maybe that all stems from Taylor Sheridan's writing and the fact that you can only f**k up his scripts to a certain extent, but it's still going to be a good movie."
Explaining how the sequel compares to the first, Brolin added: "I think it's just more severe, man. All the way around. I think the characters are more severe. I think the movie is more severe. I think it's just much bigger. It's just a bigger scope film.
"Like I said, when I saw it it was like Sicario felt like a small movie to me, even though it was a very intimate movie. I've always said I don't understand why bigger movies can't be just as intimate, if not more intimate. Why do they have to be less emotional?
"I think Soldado's a perfect example of that. I think it's extremely emotional. I think it's extremely tense and it deals with similar subject matters."
Soldado is slated for release in the US and the UK on 29 June, 2018.
