Antoine Fuqua leaves the door open for another Equalizer, if Denzel Washington is down
"If he wanted to do another one, I would as well, but I don't see it," said the Equalizer 3 director
There are always going to be downtrodden people to avenge, and—at least since the original series premiered in 1985—there are always going to be more Equalizers to enact said vengeance in the most violent manner possible. The next Robert McCall just might not be Denzel Washington, or in the words of Equalizer(s) 1 through 3 director Antoine Fuqua, “Who knows?”
“I believe this would be it. We’ve both talked about it that way. But you never know!” the director said of his potential trilogy closing threequel The Equalizer 3, which premieres in theaters this Friday (via Entertainment Weekly).
“Listen, Denzel’s in shape. He’s training every day,” Fuqua continued. “If you saw him now, it would blow your mind. He’s like 60 pounds lighter, even from The Equalizer. He’s really healthy. Yeah, it’s up to him. Obviously, if he wanted to do another one, I would as well, but I don’t see it. But who knows?”
While this glimmer of hope may be exciting for fans of the gritty franchise, Fuqua did seem to effectively shut this door in an interview with Total Film earlier this month. “I don’t see another one in it for me,” the director said. “From my conversations with Denzel, this is the final one [for him] as well.” (We also feel the need to point out that the trailer for The Equalizer 3 refers to the film as “the final chapter,” but, again, “who knows?”)
However, in the words of The A.V. Club reviewer Timothy Cogshell, “One can expect more equalizing in the future due to the strength of the context of these films.”
“Rumor has it that John David Washington (Denzel’s movie-star son) may be cued up for the role in a prequel,” Cogshell continues. “Perhaps we’ll get to see where his sense of brutal righteousness comes from. And maybe we’ll even get another three satisfying movies out of it.”