Ben Affleck’s ‘The Accountant’ Sequel Moves to Amazon MGM From Warner Bros.

Ryan Gajewski and Borys Kit
·3 min read
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The Ben Affleck-led sequel to his 2016 crime film The Accountant has a new home as it gears up for a production start later this month.

The follow-up thriller has moved to Amazon MGM Studios after it was previously in development for many years at Warner Bros., The Hollywood Reporter has learned. THR initially reported back in 2017 that a sequel was in the works.

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The action thriller is already deep into the casting process and has J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal and Cynthia Addai-Robinson back on the call sheet after they appeared in the original.

The move from studio to streamer took place over the course of last summer, during the actors and writers strikes, according to sources. The sequel was a priority during the heady days of the HBO Max era when the studio was developing big-name feature projects intended for its newly launched and very shiny streaming service. Once the David Zaslav era began in 2022, those projects lost their luster.

Affleck, already in business with Amazon with Air, his $90 million Nike movie, decided to give the sequel a second chance at life. Artists Equity, the artist-led production company he founded with Matt Damon, was able to license the sequel rights from Warners for one movie, with the studio ledgering an undisclosed fee. The project was on the California Film Commission list of projects that were awarded tax credits for 2024. Accountant 2 is receiving $10 million in credits.

Director Gavin O’Connor, who helmed the first film, and Bill Dubuque, who wrote it, are also back. But Anna Kendrick, who played an accountant in the original, is not coming back for the sequel.

Affleck and Damon are producing via Artists Equity, along with 51 Entertainment’s Lynette Howell Taylor, and Mark Williams. Executive producers include Artists Equity’s Dani Bernfeld, Kevin Halloran, Michael Joe and Alison Winter. Scott Lastaiti and Jamie Patricof will also serve as executive producers.

Warners’ 2016 film collected $86 million at the domestic box office and $155 million globally. It centered on Christian Wolff (Affleck), a certified public accountant on the autism spectrum who has worked for criminal organizations and uses his past as an assassin to protect himself when the Treasury Department closes in on him.

The logline for the sequel, per Amazon, is thus: “When her former boss is killed by unknown assassins, Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina (Addai-Robinson) is forced to contact Christian Wolff (Affleck) to solve the murder. With the help of his estranged but highly lethal brother Brax (Bernthal), Chris applies his brilliant mind and less-than-legal methods to piece together the unsolved puzzle. As they get closer to the truth, the trio draw the attention of some of the most ruthless killers alive — all intent on putting a stop to their search.”

O’Connor and Affleck previously reunited for the Warner Bros. basketball drama The Way Back, released in March 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Accountant 2 is now the fourth feature from the growing Artists Equity and Amazon MGM partnership. The collaborations include, Air, the chart-topping documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told and the upcoming feature Unstoppable, based on the true story of Anthony Robles.

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