Sicario: From the Myth of the Hitman to the Brutal Reality

There's something about the word sicario that just sticks with you. Directly translated from Spanish, it means "hitman," but in the real world – and on screen – it covers something far more complex. It's the shadow operating in the no-man's-land between law and anarchy. Right now, we're seeing a massive resurgence of interest in the phenomenon. On one hand, Sicario 2: Soldado is blazing across TV screens again, and on the other, we're reminded that contract killings, unfortunately, aren't just something that happens in Hollywood. In fact, the real-life stories are closer to home than most of us realise.

Soldado is back on screen – and Capos is on the way

If you've watched telly recently, you've probably noticed Sicario 2: Soldado getting airtime again. That 2018 film, directed by Stefano Sollima, took a sharp turn away from the first movie's moral compass (farewell, Emily Blunt's Kate Macer) and instead dove straight into the muck with Benicio Del Toro's Alejandro and Josh Brolin's ice-cold Matt Graver. It's a gritty affair where the lines between agent and hitman have long since been erased. And for those of us who can't get enough of that universe, there's good news: according to sources close to the production, producer Basil Iwanyk has confirmed that Sicario 3 is still in the works. The working title is reportedly Sicario: Capos (meaning "Chiefs" or "Bosses"), and the idea is so good they've just been waiting for the right moment to finish the script. Del Toro is set to return as the enigmatic Alejandro – a character you just never get tired of watching. Rumours are swirling, and there's talk that both Brolin and Blunt are ready to pick up the thread again if it all comes together.

• Sicario (2015): Denis Villeneuve's masterpiece that introduces us to agent Kate Macer's nightmare.
• Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018): The war escalates, and Alejandro is sent on an impossible mission.
• Sicario: Capos (2026/2027?): The upcoming third film, set to bring us back to the front line.

More than just movies: When the hitman came to Denmark

But it's not just on the big screen that the word sicario resonates. We don't have to look further than our own capital city to find stories that could have been penned by Taylor Sheridan. The other day, we read about a 34-year-old gang leader who has now been charged with ordering a hitman killing in Christiania back in 2021. An innocent 22-year-old man was killed because he was sitting in the wrong seat. He wasn't the intended target, but that's how merciless reality can be. According to information that has emerged during the investigation, the criminal network Casablanca hired contract killers from Sweden to do the dirty work. It's hard-hitting realism that matches the darkest works of fiction.

The same day, it was revealed that a 36-year-old Norwegian man was sentenced to 13 years in prison for acting as a hitman in Denmark. He was hired by unknown masterminds to carry out a job that, fortunately, went wrong. It shows that the phenomenon of American Sicario (also the title of a recent film with Danny Trejo, telling the story of the first American-born drug lord in Mexico) doesn't just belong to the New World. The hitman's shadow stretches far and wide, even over Danish street corners.

What makes a good Sicario universe so unsettling is precisely this mix-up. We see fiction play out with new films on the way, while at the same time, we can open a Danish newspaper and read about a hitman charge in the Copenhagen District Court. It's as if the line between the world we see on screen and the world we live in ourselves is becoming more and more porous. And that's exactly why we remain fascinated – because we sense that just beneath the surface, the same darkness that Alejandro navigates is simmering away.

So, the next time you see Soldado rolling across the screen, or you're looking forward to Capos landing in cinemas, just remember that hitmen aren't just something we see in films. They're a part of our reality, and the stories from both Mexico and inner-city Dublin show that the sicario phenomenon is more relevant than ever.