Ben Affleck’s Strangest Action Movie is Getting a Sequel
New home, same accountant.
Belated sequels are all the rage right now. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been since the first installment of a series; if you have an interesting follow-up story, an engaging cast, and a recognizable brand name, then any movie can find a second life, even if it’s from a different studio. The latest film to get the belated sequel treatment is Ben Affleck’s controversial 2016 thriller The Accountant, which is a choice few fans saw coming.
According to Variety, The Accountant 2 is among 15 films that have been granted production tax credits from the state of California, meaning it will begin filming this year. Ben Affleck is attached to star, while director Gavin O’Connor and writer Bill Dubuque will also return. However, while the 2016 movie was released by Warner Bros., the sequel will reportedly be released by Amazon MGM Studios.
Affleck’s portrayal of an autistic math savant brought controversy to The Accountant.
The Accountant is the story of Christian Wolff (Affleck), an autistic accountant who lives a simple life as a cover for his true profession: running a criminal organization’s books to ensure no one’s skimming off the top. But when the Treasury Department starts to hunt him down, he has to fight back. While critics praised the action sequences that displayed Indonesian martial arts, the way Wolff’s autism is portrayed could generously be called inaccurate.
This could be addressed in the sequel. Jon Bernthal’s character, Brax, is revealed to be Christian’s brother late in The Accountant, and director Gavin O’Connor told CinemaBlend he’ll have a bigger role in The Accountant 2. This new focus could help address some of the first movie’s flaws, and provide the grounding for a more traditional thriller, by giving Affleck someone to bounce off of rather than keeping him as a lone wolf accountant for long stretches.
Jon Bernthal’s character will have a bigger role in The Accountant 2.
According to O’Connor, the sequel is just the beginning, as a third movie is also in the works. “The third movie’s going to be, I call it, ‘Rain Man on steroids,” O’Connor told CinemaBlend. “The third movie is going to be the two brothers, this odd couple. The third one is going be a buddy picture.”
If O’Connor is to be believed, The Accountant 2 won’t just be another crack at a controversial action thriller, but the start of an entire actuarial sciences-based action franchise. That’s a big development for all the Accountant superfans in your life, whoever they may be.
