Denzel Washington and Director Antoine Fuqua are Back for ‘The Equalizer 3’
Sony has dated the new movie for September 2023 and moved some of its Spider-Verse offerings.
Denzel Washington in Sony Pictures' 'The Equalizer.'
It has been nearly four years since Denzel Washington last dished out crusading, rough justice to baddies in ‘The Equalizer 2’. Since then, he’s been busy on other fronts, including producing ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, directing ‘A Journal for Jordan’ and appearing in ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’, and ‘The Little Things’.
Yet following talk back in January that Sony was putting the pieces – including Washington and director Antoine Fuqua – back together for a third ‘Equalizer’ outing, we have confirmation that the plan is for them to return, since the studio handed out a release date.
"They have written the third ‘Equalizer’, so I’m scheduled to do that, Washington told Collider back then. "So I gotta get in shape and start beating people up again. I get to beat people up again. ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’ and then going and beating some people up. Can’t get any better, right?"
For those who might have forgotten, the ‘Equalizer’ movies are a reboot of the classic 80s television series of the same name created by Richard Lindheim and Michael Sloan. The series followed Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a retired intelligence agent who becomes a private detective.
The first film, from 2014, saw Washington starring as McCall alongside Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz, David Harbour, Melissa Leo, and Bill Pullman as he faced off against the Russian Mafia to protect a young girl. The 2018 sequel has Washington, Leo, and Pullman all returning, joined by Pedro Pascal, Ashton Sanders, and Orson Bean as Washington’s McCall sets out on a mission of revenge when one of his friends is murdered.
Details about the third movie have yet to be revealed, but you can reliably expect that Washington’s Robert McCall will bring his smarts and creative weapons skills to another tough mission battling criminals.
Sony is looking to release the new movie on September 1st, 2023.
The news comes amidst the studio reorganizing its release slate, including the disappointing announcement that ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ sequel ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ is being pushed back from a planned 2022 date into next year.
This latest outing for Miles Morales and co., which has dropped the “Part One” from its title, will now bow in theaters on June 2, 2023. And the third movie in the series is also on the move: ‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Part II’ is due on March 29th, 2024.
Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson are co-directing the movies from a screenplay by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and David Callaham.
That wasn’t the only Spider-news to hit from Sony – the company has also handed out a July 7, 2023 spot to ‘Madame Web’, which stars Dakota Johnson as the title character, a clairvoyant with abilities to see into the spider world. Sydney Sweeney also stars, while S.J. Clarkson will direct a script by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.
With ‘Across: The Spider-Verse’ vacating its original October 7 release date this year, that has left room for Sony to put live-action/CGI musical adaptation of children’s book series ‘Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile’ in its place. Shawn Mendes voices the eponymous singing crocodile, while Will Speck and Josh Gordon direct and produce.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
