Why Denzel Washington Has Only Made 1 Sequel In His Entire Career

The vast majority of A-list names can typically be split into two camps. They’re either movie stars who headline glossy genre films and lead them to big box office success, or they’ve built up a solid body of work in acclaimed dramas, to the extent that audiences are expecting a certain level of quality from their efforts. Most of them try and jump between the two and suffer mixed results, but arguably nobody has nailed it better than Denzel Washington.

Widely regarded as one of the finest talents in the history of the business, the 66 year-old has won two Academy Awards from eight acting nominations, and also picked up a Best Picture nod for his third directorial effort Fences. He’s perhaps the single most bankable actor in the industry, too, boasting an incredible track record of box office success, with people willing to check out his latest movie based on nothing else except the fact that his name is on the poster.

Sure, Roman J. Israel, Esq. may have been a rare commercial misfire, but he still picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. In fact, you’d have to go back a dozen years and thirteen films before that to 2004’s The Manchurian Candidate remake to find the last one of his starring vehicles that didn’t earn at least twice its budget back in theaters.

And yet, Denzel Washington has only starred in one sequel throughout his entire career, despite headlining literally dozens of action thrillers. The Equalizer‘s Robert McCall is the one role he’s ever played more than once, and a couple of years back he revealed the simple reason why. Turns out, he doesn’t really get asked to do them, which boggles the mind given his status and longevity at the top of the industry.

“I haven’t been asked,” he said while promoting The Equalizer 2. “The only time I’ve been asked was for Safe House, but that didn’t make sense because my character had died, so they were talking about a prequel. And I was asked for Inside Man. But this one just made sense.”

Fair enough. But tell us, which of the actor’s films would you like to see get a sequel? Sound off down below.