Benicio del Toro is ready to soldier on…

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican actor will star in Soldado, the second installment of the drug war thriller that began with 2015’s Sicario.

Hailing from Lionsgate and Black Label Media, the sequel focuses on Alejandro Gillick, the shadowy protagonist played by del Toro, and Josh Brolin’s CIA agent Matt Graver, who in the first film established themselves as hell bent on hunting down cartel kingpins, no matter what.

Soldado, which was scripted by Taylor Sheridan, does not include the FBI agent character played by Emily Blunt in Sicario.

In the film, Gillick and Graver concern themselves with what is being smuggled across the border between Mexico and the U.S. in the tunnels used to move drugs and illegal immigrants. Those tunnels also can be used to bring terrorists into the U.S.

Italian director Stefano Sollima is the front-runner to direct the second installment. Denis Villenueve directed the first film.