Director Antoine Fuqua Sees The Equalizer 3 as a Man on Fire Sequel

Antoine Fuqua sees The Equalizer 3 as something more akin to a Man on Fire Sequel – and its easy to see why. Equalizer III will reunite franchise star Denzel Washington with his Man of Fire (2004) co-star Dakota Fanning – albeit with Fanning playing a much different sort of role this time around. That said, the trailers for The Equalizer 3 have made it pretty clear that there is indeed a lot that is similar in spirit between the story of Equalizer 3 and the story of Man on Fire. 

“We never talked about it collectively, but I’ve thought about it that way,” Fuqua admitted to ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis. “You know when Dakota said she was interested I thought ‘Ah yeah! This is Man on Fire but years later – and this is what he’s doing,’ you know? But I never said that to them because they’re just in the characters [of Equalizer 3] in those moments. But when you see them together, man – when I saw them on set – it was just like… [holds hands up] just smiling – I was just like ‘Yeah…’ [laughing].” 

Director Tony Scott (Top Gun) scored a cult hit in 2004 with Man on Fire, a remake of a Scott Glenn movie from 1987, which was based on a 1980 novel by Philip Nicholson (penname A.J. Quinnell). Scott’s version of the story moved the setting from Italy (and the mob) to Mexico (and the cartels). Washington played a troubled former CIA operative who takes a job as a bodyguard for a wealthy Mexican automaker and his family. After bonding with the young daughter in his charge (Fanning), Washington’s character is brutally ambushed and left for dead by a cartel of kidnappers, who abduct the girl for her ransom insurance. The film then turns into a brutal revenge tale, as Washington’s John Creasy tortures and murders his way up the criminal hierarchy to get the girl back. 

The Equalizer 3 synopsis not only sounds like a framework for a Man on Fire sequel – it oddly sounds more in line with the original concept of Phillip Nicholson’s novel! 

Since giving up his life as a government assassin, Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has struggled to reconcile the horrific things he’s done in the past and finds a strange solace in serving justice on behalf of the oppressed. Finding himself surprisingly at home in Southern Italy, he discovers his new friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become his friends’ protector by taking on the mafia.

The Equalizer 3 will be in movie theaters on September 1st.