Ben Affleck’s 2016 “guy with autism is good at math and killing people” thriller The Accountantwas a modest success—but not so modest as to keep the sequel machine at bay. Now under the aegis of Amazon MGM Studios, The Accountant 2 is aiming at an April 25, 2025 release date, with a new trailer to promote the sequel out this morning.
Which, dare we say it, is doubling down hard on the Rain Man of it all, bringing back Jon Bernthal as the brother of Ben Affleck’s numbers-minded killer Christian Wolff, and putting the two bros on a violence-heavy road trip that sees them work to reconnect despite the differences in the way they think. Also along for the ride: Cynthia Addai-Robinson, reprising her role from the first movie, as the trio attempts to solve the murder of J.K. Simmons’ character after he scrawls “Find the accountant” on his arm right before getting whacked.
The relationship between Affleck and Bernthal’s characters was a small but memorable part of the first movie, so we can’t fault writer Bill Dubuque for making it the focus of his second screenplay. (Bernthal gets the best bit of this new trailer, quasi-admitting to murder to a federal agent with a sheepish look on his face.) Affleck, meanwhile, seems to have sunk back into his character fairly seamlessly despite the nine-year gap, picking up his various affectations—the blown-on fingers, the clipped speech patterns—and looking comfortable with Wolff’s particularly precise brand of violence. The result feels like it could make for an interesting expansion of the first movie’s fairly tight focus, allowing its stars to explore their characters while widening the killing floor considerably.
