It has been rumored for a few years, but now it’s a go as filmmaker Gavin O’Connor has confirmed that he has closed a deal to return as director for a follow-up to 2016’s “The Accountant”.
Ben Affleck starred in the original as Chris Wolff, the titular math savant with high functioning autism and assassination skills. Wolff works as a forensic accountant and un-cooks the books for unsavory criminal organizations who are under the glare of law enforcement.
Speaking with CinemaBlend, O’Connor says he always intended a trilogy with the focus moving towards the relationship between Affleck and Jon Bernthal’s characters:
“We are doing an Accountant sequel. We literally just closed that deal. We’re doing The Accountant again…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.”
Costing $44 million to make, the first film ended up grossing $155 million and was a strong seller on video. Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Cynthia Addai-Robinson and John Lithgow also starred.