Discover the history behind The Equalizer series before Queen Latifah’s new show
By Elaine Selna
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As Queen Latifah starts her new CBS series, The Equalizer, the show will be very familiar to eagle-eyed fans but have some new twists. This show is a remake of a remake. For those of you who are not aware of this series’s history, below, we will go through the iterations McCall has gone through over the decades.
The Equalizer (1985 – 1989)
Starting in 1985, showrunners Michael Sloan and Robert Lindheim created a show about an ex-operative who wants to help people through his special set of skills. In the show that ran for four years, Edward Woodward plays Robert McCall, The Equalizer. He puts an ad in the newspaper classifieds saying, “Got a problem? Odds against you? Call the Equalizer.” In Woodward’s 2009 New York Times obituary, his character was, “Well-dressed, unthreatening in appearance behind his professorial glasses, McCall was nonetheless a man with a volatile temper and a willingness to pull the trigger.” This set of values continues throughout the next iteration of the show.
WHERE TO WATCH: NBC for free
The Equalizer (2014)
After 25 years, Robert McCall, now called Bob, returns in the form of Denzel Washington and is ready to strike out and help others as a freelance revenge seeker. In this movie inspired by the 1980s series, McCall seeks to help others selflessly rather than be a vigilante. In a review from The New York Times, journalist A.O. Scott writes, “[McCall’s] decency licenses both his extreme brutality and our enjoyment of it. We can persuade ourselves that we are watching the spectacle of enacted justice rather than the sentimentalization of a homicidal sociopath.” A modern-day Robin Hood story only just begins.
WHERE TO WATCH: Hulu + Live TV, Amazon Prime, Sling TV
The Equalizer: A Novel (2014); $50
Michael Sloan decided to continue the series as a novel. This book came out around the same time the movie came out. In the film and this novel, McCall takes on Russian mobsters, though in the book they are Chechen, to save an innocent woman’s life. Even though Sloan didn’t write the 2014 movie, he produced it, which must have helped write this version of the story.
BUY IT NOW: Amazon
The Equalizer 2 (2018)
Four years later, Washington is back as McCall and is ready to hand out some vigilante justice for the innocent. McCall gets a personal assignment, according to The Hollywood Reporter, when his former handler and friend Susan, played by Mellisa Leo, becomes a victim. This news brings McCall back into action and sets off a war involving old friend Dave, played by Pedro Pascal, who might have some secrets of his own.
WHERE TO WATCH: Hulu + Live TV, Amazon Prime, Sling TV, fuboTV
The Equalizer (2021-current)
Now we are brought to the current version of The Equalizer. Robert is now Robyn. Latifah’s version of McCall, much like Washington’s and Woodward’s is an ex-agent looking to help those who cannot help themselves. Original co-creator of the 1985 show, Robert Lindheim, was an executive producer on the new series until he died in January 2021. The show has been years in the making, according to Deadline, and now fans can see a new side of McCall brought out by Latifah.
WHERE TO WATCH: CBS All Access, Hulu + Live TV, Amazon Prime, fuboTV