It’s the current favourite to take home the Best Picture statue later this month, but as the buzz surrounding The Departed’s predicted success at the Oscars continues to, erm, buzz, one of Scorsese’s ruthless detectives has revealed to Empire that The Departed, just like its Internal Affairs counterpart, could spawn not one, but two sequels. Here’s the freshly Oscar-nominated Mark Wahlberg:

“They told me they wanted to try to do it and I said, ‘Well, I enjoyed playing the character’. I mean, this guy [Dignam] doesn’t give a shit about anything. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks. He just does what he does, he does it the way he wants to do it. And I love that. I don’t think that people who are borderline sane have to be bad. It was just the way I was acting throughout the movie, and then you realise that he’s one of the only stand-up guys. He avenges the death of someone he doesn’t even like just because it’s the right thing to do. There’s a dignity to him.”

Oh, and it seems one of Scorsese’s old friends may be lining up to join the story: “They’re talking about bringing in De Niro to play a senator or a congressman”, revealed the actor. “You know, the corruption obviously going deeper and higher up the ranks — reaching up the political chain. So it’ll be fun. And if it’s a success, they’re gonna do a prequel and bring everyone back…make it a trilogy”.

According to Wahlberg, screenwriter William Monahan is currently hard at work penning the second instalment of the Boston crime saga, and shooting could begin sometime at “the beginning of next year or end of this year” - although any script would need Scorsese’s approval and the director’s involvement in any future chapters is currently unclear.

For the full interview with Mark Wahlberg and more on the plot of The Departed 2, pick up the new Empire, on sale from February 23, or even better, subscribe today.