Summary
- The hit thriller film The Accountant will get a sequel, with filming set to begin later this year. Exciting news for fans!
- Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal are expected to return to reprise their roles in The Accountant 2, with Bernthal’s character having a bigger role this time.
- Director Gavin O’Connor has plans for a third installment and envisions it as an odd couple buddy picture. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting sequel!
It looks like the hit action thriller flick The Accountant will soon get a sequel, with a follow-up reportedly set to begin filming later this year. According to a listing on Productionlist.com, The Accountant 2 now has a “shoot date” of March 15, 2024, suggesting that a sequel following Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff is finally on the cards.
Not much else is yet known about The Accountant 2, but the follow-up will no doubt pick up with Affleck’s character following the explosive events of the first outing. Released back in 2016 and directed by Gavin O’Connor, The Accountant follows Affleck as Christian Wolff, a certified public accountant with autism who has an affinity for numbers and makes his living manipulating the books of criminal and terrorist organizations around the world that are experiencing internal embezzlement. As Wolff gets closer to the truth about a discrepancy that involves millions of dollars, the body count starts to rise as Christian reveals himself to be just as good at killing as he is at accountancy.
Written by Bill Dubuque and directed by O’Connor, The Accountant stars Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Lithgow. It was a big hit at the box office when it was released so a sequel seemed all but inevitable.
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Ben Affleck & Jon Bernthal Expected to Return for The Accountant 2
There has been word of the filmmakers getting a sequel launched since 2017, but progress has been slow since then. In a major update on its status, director Gavin O’Connor said back in 2021 that a deal has been finalized, meaning that The Accountant 2 is apparently happening for real. Unfortunately for fans of The Way Back, the director also confirmed at the time that that movie would not be getting a sequel, unlike The Accountant. From CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast:
“There will not be a Way Back sequel, but we are doing an Accountant sequel. We literally just closed that deal. We’re doing The Accountant again.”
Better yet, O’Connor revealed that the plan is for Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal to both return to reprise their roles from the first movie. In the original, Bernthal’s character Braxton is revealed to be the long lost brother to Affleck’s Christian, so it’s expected he will play a much bigger role in The Accountant 2. Along with his plan to do the first sequel, O’Connor also says he has ideas for the third installment, and The Accountant 2 will be developed with The Accountant 3 in mind. As the filmmaker explains:
“Yeah. Yeah. So, I’ve always wanted to do three because what, the second one’s going to be more with — we’re going to integrate his brother into the story. So there’ll be more screen time for Bernthal in the second one. And then the third movie’s going to be, I call it, ‘Rain Man on steroids.’ The third movie is going to be the two brothers, this odd couple. The third one is going be a buddy picture.”
In 2019, Affleck also addressed the possibility of a sequel in a Collider interview, though he wasn’t quite sure it would end up happening. At that time, he made it clear that he’s open to revisiting that role in a sequel, noting how much he enjoyed working with O’Connor. He also said how they spoke about possible directions on where to take the next movie.
“Yeah, I hope so. I would love to,” Affleck said when asked if the sequel was happening. “We’ve talked about kicking some ideas around, this last movie we just did [Torrance]. We talked to the studio and they seemed interested, and they kind of brought it up so, we’re looking to do that. I think it would be fun. I love Gavin, I love the movie I just did with him. I had a great experience and I love the character in The Accountant. I’d certainly be open to it.”
While we may not yet know much else about the direction of The Accountant 2, for fans looking forward to seeing more of Affleck and Bernthal in the sequel, this is a fantastic update on where the project is at.
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