The Accountant 2 is officially a go according to director Gavin O’Connor. 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.
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, O’Connor says a deal has now been finalized, meaning that The Accountant 2 is apparently happening for real. Unfortunately for fans of The Way Back, the director also confirms that movie will 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 says 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.”
Not much else was revealed about The Accountant 2, so it remains unclear when filming could begin or when it might be released. In any case, for fans looking forward to seeing more of Affleck and Bernthal in The Accountant 2, this is a fantastic update on where the project is at. This news comes to us from CinemaBlend.