Denzel Washington has been the man behind Robert McCall for almost a decade now. Working with Antoine Fuqua on The Equalizer in 2014, where the pair —having teamed up back in 2001 for Training Day which won Washington an Academy Award— reunited to bring the cult thriller television series from the 1980s.

In the series, McCall is a retired intelligence agent with a mysterious past. After leaving his dangerous life behind, he decides to atone for his past actions by using his unique skills to assist those who have no one else to turn to. He adopts the codename “The Equalizer” and operates as a vigilante for hire. For the film, and its sequel, The Equalizer 2, Washington operates more as a lone vigilante looking to right wrongs suffered by those he encounters, even as he struggles emotionally with his actions.

Washington and Fuqua now return for what both feel is the final chapter of the story —The Equalizer 3— they began telling in 2014, as Robert McCall heads for Southern Italy having found peace and contentment, seeking to find a quiet spot in which to spend his final years in tranquility. Obviously, that isn’t going to happen when the Mafia gets involved in McCall’s life.

Washington believes the time has come for the sun to set on McCall’s time on the big screen, with the character having found something resembling happiness, admitting that he was surprised his tenure as the character has already gone on longer than anyone else anticipated, as he said to Empire.

“I don’t want to say he’s found happiness, and I don’t want to give it all away, but he meets someone lovely, he’s in a lovely town and he seems to be at peace. That seems to be a good place to stop. I didn’t know that there were going to be three. Definitely didn’t know that when we did the first one. I didn’t know how it would end.”

For Fuqua, he feels there is an atmosphere of finality for McCall’s final stand. “This is it,” says the director. “Robert McCall, the working-man hero, at some point he’s got to walk away from it. At some point someone else has to pick up the ball and serve justice. He’s served his justice. He’s in a foreign place, he’s trying to find a home, find a place in the world. That’s really what’s important.”

No doubt, he’ll be taking down a few sinister Mafiosos while he does it, but after all, that’s why we’re with him. The release date for The Equalizer 3 has been announced, with it expected to hit our screens on September 1st, 2023.

via Collider