Director Antoine Fuqua says he sees The Equalizer 3 as an unofficial sequel to Man on Fire.
Speaking With ComicBook, Fuqua, who directed Denzel Washington in all three Equalizer films, explained why the upcoming third movie in the trilogy also functions as a sequel to 2004’s Man on Fire, directed by Tony Scott.
“We never talked about it collectively, but I’ve thought about it that way,” Fuqua explained. “You know when Dakota [Fanning] said she was interested I thought ‘Ah yeah! This is Man on Fire but years later – and this is what he’s doing,’ you know? But I never said that to them because they’re just in the characters [of Equalizer 3] in those moments. But when you see them together, man – when I saw them on set – it was just like…just smiling – I was just like ‘Yeah…’.”
In Man on Fire, Washington plays John Creasy, a bodyguard in charge of protecting a young girl, Lupita “Pita” Ramos (Fanning), in Mexico City. When Pita is kidnapped by an unknown abductor, Creasy has to find the people responsible and bring her back to safety.
Who is Dakota Fanning playing in The Equalizer 3?
Fanning is playing a character named Emma Collins in The Equalizer 3. While not much is known about Emma Collins at this time, the film’s marketing indicates she’s some form of government agent working with Washington’s character to take down a new wave of enemies.
“Since giving up his life as a government assassin, Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) has struggled to reconcile the horrific things he’s done in the past and finds a strange solace in serving justice on behalf of the oppressed,” the official synopsis to The Equalizer 3 reads. “Finding himself surprisingly at home in Southern Italy, he discovers his new friends are under the control of local crime bosses. As events turn deadly, McCall knows what he has to do: become his friends’ protector by taking on the mafia.”
The Equalizer 3 releases theatrically in the United States on September 1, 2023.