Emily Blunt Returning for Third ‘Sicario’ Movie Alongside Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro

"The Weight" director Padraic McKinley is taking on the drug war franchise that dates back to 2015.

We never would have considered that “Sicario,” released back in 2015, could one day become a franchise or a trilogy. In fact, you could say that the film‘s writer Taylor Sheridan had an unofficial trilogy between “Sicario,” “Hell or High Water,” and “Wind River” all in the course of three years. Denis Villeneuve too moved on from the gritty drug-run action genre for his own trilogy in adapting “Dune.”

But here we are with what is now a third “Sicario” movie in the works from what will be the franchise’s third filmmaker. But giving the project even more clout than 2018’s sequel “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” is that the original film’s star, Emily Blunt, is now set to be returning, as Deadline first reported.

Blunt will star in a third “Sicario” film alongside Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro, who both starred in the original and in the sequel. Directing is Padraic McKinley, who this year directed the Western “The Weight” starring Ethan Hawke. “Peaky Blinders” creator Steven Knight is also writing the script. Plot details are being kept under wraps.

Landing Blunt when she’s at the height of her stardom is a big get, especially considering “Sicario” was never envisioned as a franchise for which she’d be contracted to do multiple films. In the original, she starred as an FBI agent brought along with a crew pursuing a Mexican drug cartel, only to discover that what she’s being brought in for goes way deeper than she presumed. The film put Villeneuve on the map and made just shy of $85 million worldwide for Lionsgate. The sequel, “Day of the Soldado” from 2018 and directed by Stefano Sollima, was released by Sony and made $75.8 million worldwide.

“Sicario 3” as yet does not have a studio attached, so producers Thunder Road and Black Label Media will be looking for a buyer for a starry action vehicle but for some unlikely IP. Production is expected to begin at the top of next year.

Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, and Thad Luckinbill are producing the third “Sicario” for Black Label Media, as are Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee for Thunder Road, and Ed McDonnell is also returning as a producer on the franchise.

Blunt is having a big year between “Disclosure Day” for Steven Spielberg and “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” and she’ll next be seen in “A Quiet Place Part III.”

Deadline first reported the news.