Coming off the back of The Magnificent Seven, Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua are set to go their separate ways, with the former lining up Oscar hopeful Fences and Inner City. Fuqua, meanwhile, will soon be busy lensing The Man Who Made It Snow and upcoming documentary, American Dream American Knightmare.
How and ever, those hoping for a Magnificent Seven reunion anytime soon will be disappointed to learn that The Equalizer 2, previously penciled in for release on September 29, 2017, will now begin filming next September.
At least, that’s according to producer Todd Black (via Collider), who revealed during a recent Q&A session that while the script is done, stacked schedules mean that the action sequel won’t be prepped for production until late next year.
The script is done. We start shooting right after Labor Day, maybe right before Labor Day depending on Denzel’s schedule. So Equalizer 2 will start shooting in September of next year, maybe earlier depending on another movie that we’re shooting with Denzel before that. We’re going to do a little bit more work and we’re going to go into casting right after that for his nemesis.
Still no word on whether Washington and Fuqua will be able to rope in Chloe Grace Moretz, Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman once again, but at the very least, Black is excited to get the wheels back in motion. Later in the session, the producer shared some insight into how Denzel Washington became attached to the part of Robert McCall in the first place.
It helps when you know him really well and you tell him at a nice expensive lunch that this could be his franchise. He’s always wanted to do a franchise, and he liked the Bourne movies, the earlier ones. I’ve had a friendship with him for 27 years and we’ve talked about him doing a franchise character, so when my partners and I got the rights to Equalizer, we were like, “Let’s get Denzel to finally do one. This could be the one.” It was never made as a movie and a lot of people didn’t know it was a TV show … but you’ve probably heard the title. He liked the title and I said to him, “Let us write it for you and if you like the script, great; if you don’t, we’ll go get another actor.” So he signed up for that and it worked.
So, there you have it; those holding out hope that Robert McCall would strut onto the big screen next year will be disappointed. In light of today’s news, The Equalizer 2 will now be ushered before the cameras in September of next year, all but confirming that Washington and Fuqua’s latest collaboration will be pushed into 2018.