One of Ben Affleck’s most underrated movies is getting a sequel
Warner Bros.Ben Affleck is returning to uncook some more books in a sequel to one of his most underrated movies from the 2010s. “I need to finish.”
Affleck is one of the most widely recognized Hollywood actors and creatives on the face of the planet. Appearances in School Ties, Dazed and Confused, and Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy teed up Good Will Hunting, his Oscar-winning triumph with best friend and co-writer Matt Damon.
In the decades since, he’s become a leading man with bangers and infamous flops, from Gone Girl and Armageddon to Gigli and Daredevil, not to mention an acclaim director with the likes of The Town and Argo – the latter of which won Best Picture in 2013.
While his career in the past decade seemed to be defined by his tenure as Batman, for better of worse, one sleeper success from 2016 is finally getting a follow-up.
Ben Affleck’s The Accountant 2 starts filming in 2024
The Accountant 2, which will see Affleck play Christian Wolff once more, is set to start shooting later this year.
This comes via Deadline, which reported that Affleck will direct a new revenge thriller with Matt Damon for Netflix before filming the sequel. “Once Damon was attached to star, Netflix was quick to board in order to meet Affleck’s busy schedule where he could shoot this film and then follow it up with the Accountant sequel later this year,” the outlet wrote.
The original film followed Christian, an autistic accountant and mathematical savant who launders money for the mob and other illegal clients as he takes on a new embezzlement case – oh, and he’s also a deadly assassin who’ll kill anyone who “breaks his moral code.”
The sequel was first announced in 2017, with director Gavin O’Connor expected to return and Jon Bernthal also hoped to reprise his role as Christian’s brother Brax.
Three years later, the project seemed to be in flux, with Affleck telling Collider: “We’ve talked about it. There seems to be a debate whether or not to do a TV series version of it. The scriptwriter [Bill Dubuque] has become quite successful and busy, so he’s off doing his thing.
“And somebody said to me, ‘Well if we could find a script that we could retrofit and make into a sequel… But that’s sort of tricky because the personality of the character is so specific, that doesn’t really work to just say, ‘Well, we used call this script Action Movie Shootout, and now we’re going to call it The Accountant 2.'”
The star insisted he’d “be thrilled to work with Gavin again and do that again. I had a great time. It was a lot of fun. It was an interesting twist on the genre and I’d love to do it… and if they want to produce a TV show version of it and I get some royalties, well that’s great too.”
During an appearance on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast, O’Connor teased: “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.”