Antoine Fuqua, the director of The Equalizer 3, hints that he is open to using de-aging technology to making a prequel film about a younger Robert McCall.
In a recent interview with Chris Bumbray of JoBlo, Fuqua suggested that likely candidates for the role might be Michael B. Jordan or John David Washington, Denzel’s son.
The three Equalizer films were released in 2014, 2018, and 2013—the third will be hitting theaters next week. They are based on a CBS television series from the 1980s that starred Edward Woodward in the leading role of Robert McCall. In The Equalizer 3, McCall is depicted moving to southern Italy, where he encounters the Sicilian Mafia. Fuqua has said that this film would be the franchise’s “final masterpiece of violence.”
The director had spoken earlier of the potential of the new de-aging technology, citing how it was used with Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. “It’s all so fresh and new,” Fuqua said. “I’m still watching [de-aging technology] … and I’m hearing that the technology is getting better and better and better. So I’m kind of watching it to see where it goes.
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Fuqua was quoted as saying that he’d already discussed the possibility of de-aging McCall with Equalizer screenwriter Richard Wenk. “Richard Wenk wrote a great script. We talked a lot about it in Equalizer 2,” he added. “During breaks, we discussed these things, and it was really about finding a home for Robert McCall.
We tracked his journey, which was finding his purpose, and in the second one, making peace with the past.
And then you’re like, ‘Okay, where does he settle down when he’s finished?’ He does his final masterpiece of violence, of helping people, and then he has a home, so that’s how that came about.”
Speaking of The Equalizer 3 in advance of its debut next week via Sony Pictures Releasing, Fuqua described the evolution of its lead character: “The first film was about [McCall] finding a purpose. And it’s very external, right? He’s helping people. The second one is more about making peace with his past. He’s betrayed by his friends and [his colleague] dies and his wife has passed away… And then this one is more of a moral dilemma because he’s a darker character… He’s struggling with the violence and brutality.”
In addition to Denzel Washington, The Equalizer 3 cast includes Dakota Fanning, David Denman, and Gaia Scodellaro.