Hard to believe that a big star like Denzel Washington, who has an impressive filmography that features many audience favorites, only has been in one franchise in his career — The Equalizer series. Inside Man doesn’t count as the direct-to-Netflix sequel does not feature him. While the esteemed actor has starred in remakes, adaptations, and action movies prior, The Equalizer 2 became Washington’s first sequel. And now that The Equalizer 3 is on its way, this marks his first trilogy.
It’s been ten years since Washington would partner back up with the director of Training Day for his first go around as Robert McCall in 2014’s The Equalizer, based on the CBS television series that ran from 1985-1989. After having played him in three movies, the Academy Award-winning actor is finally ready to bid adieu to his first franchise. Empire reports on Washington’s conclusion of McCall’s story. Washington explains, “I don’t want to say he’s found happiness, and I don’t want to give it all away, but he meets someone lovely, he’s in a lovely town, and he seems to be at peace. That seems to be a good place to stop. I didn’t know that there were going to be three. Definitely didn’t know that when we did the first one. I didn’t know how it would end.”
Director Antoine Fuqua, who has worked with Denzel throughout the series, agrees that the upcoming chapter feels like a closing one. “This is it. Robert McCall, the working-man hero, at some point he’s got to walk away from it. At some point someone else has to pick up the ball and serve justice. He’s served his justice. He’s in a foreign place, he’s trying to find a home, find a place in the world. That’s really what’s important.”
The original series starred Edward Woodward as Robert McCall. The concept remained the same as Denzel’s incarnation plays a man with a past and uses his acquired training to right the wrongs he encounters along the way. In The Equalizer 3, Robert McCall finds himself at home in Southern Italy but he discovers his friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become his friends’ protector by taking on the mafia. This film will also reunite Washington with his former Man on Fire co-star, Dakota Fanning.
The Equalizer 3 opens on September 1.