‘The Accountant 2’ release window, cast, and more

Ben Affleck shall return as the titular accountant in the upcoming sequel film, The Accountant 2. It will follow on from the original entry from 2016, which went down pretty well with audiences, and many of the major players from the The Accountant will also be returning to reprise their roles.

The movie, directed by David O’Connor, followed the character of Christopher Wolff, a forensic accountant by day and assassin by night. The movie attempted to portray Wolff as being on the autism spectrum, though there have been many in the autistic community that did more than just raise an eyebrow at yet another fully-able person playing a neurodivergent character. Wolff has insane math skills, (another Hollywood trope that many autistic people are gifted with savant syndrome) which he uses in his job as a forensic accountant, following the money as it were, within corporations.

In The Accountant, Wolff has worked uncooking the books for some of the most dangerous crime syndicates in the world but whilst investigating a legitimate company, so as to throw off the Treasury agent who has been following him. Wolff finds that the source of the company’s financial discrepancies could bring him more danger than ever. Starring Affleck as Wolff, Jon Bernthal as his brother, Brax, Anna Kendrick as corporate employee Dana Cummings, J.K Simmons as Treasury Agent Ray King, and Jon Lithgow as corrupt businessman Lamar Blackburn, the feature had quite the star-studded cast.

The film did very well financially, bringing in $155.2 million at the global box office after only costing $44 million to make. That, and the fact that the audience responded pretty well to the storyline has allowed a second film to be greenlit by Warner Bros., though critics gave it very middling reviews, with The Accountant sitting with only 52 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It is usually a strong box office performance and audience engagement that decide whether a sequel is going to happen, and that is exactly what The Accountant delivered on.

What is The Accountant 2 about?

O’Connor confirmed a sequel back in 2021, saying that he is actually hoping to extend it to a full trilogy. The second chapter will actually focus more on Chris’s brother, Brax, allowing the fantastic Bernthal the chance to shine. Talking on the ReelBlend podcast, O’Connor discussed his vision for the next two movies, saying “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.” He also discussed plans for the third film adding, “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.”

The two brothers left one another after the madness of Blackburn’s house, with an agreement to meet one week from that point. Whether the sequel will start here or not we don’t know, but we will likely get to see more of their relationship, even if it does focus more on Brax than Chris.

Who is starring in The Accountant 2?

It has been confirmed that both Affleck and Bernthal are back to reprise their roles. Both actors have been extremely busy since The Accountant with Affleck having joined the DC Universe that very same year, going on to star in handful of DC projects since then such as Justice League, and The Flash as well as another film with O’Connor, The Way Back in 2020.

Bernthal has also been busy, starring in the Marvel/Netflix series The Punisher as the titular character, as well as in projects such as the Acadamy Award-winning, King Richard, Ford v Ferrari, and the critically acclaimed series, The Bear. We are unsure if any of the other characters that survived the first film will return at this point, though we always hope to see more J.K Simmons. Of course, O’Connor will be back to direct.

There is no release date set for The Accountant 2, with production not having even started yet. With no exact timeline to go off, the best we can do is go remind ourselves of what happened in the first film, given it came out some time ago.

The Accountant has been available on Netflix but only in certain countries (so check that out for your own area) otherwise, it is possible to rent or buy on Apple TV Plus and Amazon Prime.