Got a problem? Odds against you? CBS is calling The Equalizer! First announced in November of last year, CBS has officially ordered a pilot for its TV reboot of the his 80s TV series. This time the series will feature a woman front and center as the titular fixer with Queen Latifah attached to star and executive produce, marking her first starring TV role since appearing on FOX’s Star.
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Andrew Marlowe, creator of ABC crime-drama Take Two and ABC’s crime dramedy Castle, created the series with Terri Miller, and the pair will serve as showrunners. Queen Latifah will executive produce alongside John Davis and John Fox of Davis Entertainment, who previously rebooted Magnum P.I. for CBS with Jay Hernandez in the role made famous by Tom Selleck, as well as last year’s Shaft that starred Samuel L. Jackson alongside Jessie T. Usher and Richard Roundtree.
Latifah joins an exclusive club of Equalizers with the original version of ex-covert operations officer Robert McCall being played by Edward Woodward on television with Denzel Washington playing the role on the big screen in the two Equalizer movies, marking the first time that Washington ever appeared in a sequel to one of his movies. The two films, released in 2014 and 2018 respectively, went on to gross over $190 million worldwide each with minimal drop off between the two. Coincidentally, Latifah interviewed Washington on her short lived TV series for the first film in 2014.
On the air for four seasons from 1985 to 1989, The Equalizer ran for 88 total episodes with a surprising amount of guest stars Tony Shalhoub, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Macaulay Culkin, Melissa Joan Hart, Christian Slater, and Sam Rockwell. The original version of The Equalizer was described as follows:
“The Equalizer” stars Golden Globe and BAFTA Award-winning actor Edward Woodward (“Hot Fuzz,” “Callan”) as Robert McCall, a former covert operations officer for a mysterious American intelligence organization known as The Company. Nicknamed the “Equalizer” by another operative, McCall quits The Company after becoming disillusioned and embarks on a quest to atone for the sins of his past. He offers his services free of charge to those with nowhere else to turn through a newspaper classified ad that reads simply: “Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the Equalizer: 212 555 4200.” As McCall haunts the violent backstreets of New York City meting out justice to criminals of all stripes, he is aided in his missions by former Company cohorts Mickey Kostmayer (Keith Szarabajka, “The Dark Knight”), Harley Gage (Richard Jordan, “The Hunt for Red October”) and Jimmy (Mark Margolis, “Better Call Saul”). McCall often works with the head of The Company’s Manhattan office, known only as Control (Robert Lansing, “The Man Who Never Was”) when he needs assistance with missions.
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(Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Lifetime)
