After spending the better part of a decade trying to get the sequel off the ground, Gavin O’Connor is looking back on how he and Ben Affleck convinced Warner Bros. to make The Accountant 2 without them. The follow-up to the 2016 thriller picks up with Affleck’s Christian Wolff being enlisted by Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s Marybeth Medina to help track down those responsible for the murder of J.K. Simmons’ Ray King, with Christian bringing his brother Braxton into the fold. Also featuring the return of Jon Bernthal as Brax, The Accountant 2 infamously spent eight years in development hell.

Now, during an interview with ScreenRant to celebrate the release of the movie’s trailer, O’Connor reflected on The Accountant 2‘s elongated development cycle. O’Connor began by recalling there being “a bit of a revolving door and musical chairs going on at Warner Bros.” in their initial efforts to make the sequel, with Affleck also creating his and Matt Damon’s production banner, Artists Equity, and originally planning to use a deal with the studio to make it:

Well, I think there was a bit of revolving door and musical chairs going on at Warner Bros. We made the deal to write the next movie in 2018, and it was just, I don’t know, whatever dysfunction goes on in studios these days. It was at Warner Bros., there were regime changes, so we were facing those obstacles. Then, Ben started his own studio, Artists Equity, [and] we were once again trying to get it going. I don’t know if there were complications with Warner Bros. and Artists Equity doing a co-studio kind of deal — I’m not really sure exactly what happened with all that — but we just could never get it going over there.

According to O’Connor, when Affleck recognized that the studio might ultimately not actually move ahead with the sequel, he and the director told WB to not “hijack” the property and let them make The Accountant 2 without the studio. After WB “gracefully gave us their blessing” to shop the project around, they immediately knew where to take the movie:

Once Ben had his studio, we were like, “If you’re not going to make it, don’t hijack it and not allow us to go pursue this film we’ve been trying to make now for eight years.” They gracefully gave us their blessing and let us leave, and we went right to Amazon, because they had heard what was going on. A lot of the people that used to work at Warner Bros. that Ben and I knew from the first movie are at Amazon now, so we had a lot of friends — Courtenay Valenti and Sue Kroll and such. So, we made a deal with Amazon. It was a negative pickup, so Ben’s company, Artists Equity, financed the film, which was a joy.

O’Connor concluded that the move away from Warner Bros. proved to be something of a blessing in disguise for The Accountant 2 team, with the production feeling “like making a $1 million independent film” rather than a double-digit studio movie as the first one. He also confirmed that Amazon MGM Studios were not only pleased with the sequel, but that “it tested well“, giving their new studio a lot of confidence in the film:

Honestly, it was like making a $1 million independent film. It was all about the creative act, and we just created this really fertile environment, and had fun and went and made the movie. Then, [we] delivered it to Amazon, they were really pleased and happy with it, it tested well, and we were off to the races.

What The Move From WB To Amazon MGM Means For The Accountant

Affleck & O’Connor’s Ideas Beyond The First Sequel May Come To Fruition

To O’Connor’s point, Warner Bros. has undergone multiple changes in the years since the first Accountant movie came out. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the studio shifted to simultaneous theatrical and streaming releases on the then-new HBO Max, disappointing many filmmakers and leading to some breaking off their working relationships, most notably Christopher Nolan. Shortly thereafter, WarnerMedia and the studio were absorbed to become Warner Bros. Discovery, which saw many former execs depart and films like Coyote vs. Acme shelved in order to make up the studio’s mᴀssive post-merger debt.

Affleck’s relationship with WBD also became something of a complicated sort beyond the frustrations over The Accountant 2‘s lack of progress during his brief tenure in the DC Extended Universe as Batman. After initially retiring from the role in order to take a step back for personal reasons, Affleck did return for the Ezra Miller-led The Flash, which not only ended up serving as a sendoff for his incarnation with George Clooney’s surprise final cameo, but also for the DCEU as a whole with James Gunn being brought on with Peter Safran to head up the reformed DC Studios.

While these various elements may have been hurdles to their desire to make the sequel, O’Connor’s comments certainly point to it being a blessing in disguise for both The Accountant 2 and the franchise’s future. The director has frequently expressed his hopes for a trilogy of movies surrounding Christian and Brax, and should the sequel do as well as the testing indicates, the team would not only get the chance to do so, but also maintain creative control over the project.

Our Take On The Accountant 2’s Studio Change

It Benefits Everyone Involved

While long-gestating sequels often find themselves failing to live up to their predecessors, the continued dedication from O’Connor and Affleck to make The Accountant 2 certainly gives me hope that they’ve cooked up something special. Even beyond a creative standpoint, the shift from WB to Amazon MGM could prove very beneficial for all involved, as the studio is still trying to break out in the theatrical field, with most of their movies only being modest successes up to this point. If it can match or surpᴀss its predecessor’s $155 million box office haul, it would be one of the studio’s best hauls yet.