Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal on The Accountant 2, making sequels... and line dancing

You think your sibling rivalry is bad? Try settling a row with a high-calibre machine gun in your hand. On-screen estranged brothers Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal return to the world of The Accountant, reprising the roles of Christian and Brax Wolff, demonstrating how your family drama probably isn't that bad unless your brother is a hitman too.

The first film — which marries up financial fraud with fisticuffs — made an impressive $144 million on release, which meant a sequel was always on the cards.

While we've had to wait nearly a decade for the follow-up, it's been worth it as the two actors are back in a sequel that has a greater focus on their dynamic, at times creeping comfortably into more comedic territory, and is well-delivered thanks to the chemistry between Affleck and Bernthal.

This time around the two brothers team up with Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s Marybeth, who is also returning, to try to track down a lethal assassin who's shrouded in mystery.

We sat down with the cast, including Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Daniella Pineda, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and director Gavin O’Connor, to discuss the action, the sprinkling of comedy, and Ben Affleck’s dancing...

Returning to The Accountant

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Ben Affleck isn’t renowned for making sequels, having very few in his filmography, but he described everything about returning to this world and character as “appealing to me”.

“I love this character," said Affleck. "I really enjoyed playing it, Gavin [the director] and I both were very much drawn to the idea of bringing Jon back and expanding on that, because we both thought this guy is fabulous, and we love it, and I think we both felt like there was a lot more to do.”

Director, Gavin O’Connor added his own motivations for returning to helm the sequel, stating he wanted to “Put people in the seats and go to a movie theatre, and the lights come down and have a communal experience where they can walk out of the theatre and go, ‘Man, that was a f*cking ball. That was just great! It was a great time at the movies.’ And that's really what we were going for.”

Cynthia Addai-Robinson, who is also returning for the sequel, is one of the main driving forces of the plot, stepping up in this film to one of the leads as Marybeth.

When talking about returning, she said: “For myself as a person and an actor, I felt like I had also grown. It was like, ‘all right, I'm gonna sort of be returning to a situation that's familiar. I feel a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more confident.’

“So that was nice for me. I felt like I could now handle what is being thrown at me, which was this dynamic with Ben and Jon's characters, and being that entry point for the audience.”

A more comedic tone second time around

After watching The Accountant 2, it’s hard not to feel this is a more light-hearted approach than the previous film. This feels like a natural transition given how much more Jon Bernthal’s character is in the film, leaking charisma in every scene, and bringing a welcome levity.

When talking about the more humorous tone, Jon credited writer Bill Dubuque for his “unbelievably strong” writing, as well as adding that “Gavin very much supported it to sort of let moments linger and let it exist naturally, and play the moments in between the beats.

"He's [Ben] unbelievably funny, it sounds corny, he's just mastered this character in such a way that there’s just so many little moments of truth that are going on that you love, but can also drive you crazy from the right point of view. I feel like I was let off the leash to have a real opinion about that.”

O’ Connor added “They weren't trying. The reason, I think, it works is because they weren't trying to be funny, right? No one was trying to be funny. They were so ingrained in their characters, and they had very specific wants, and if you're not getting that, it's like banging your head against the wall.”

Earned action and even more action

The Accountant 2 has plenty of hard-hitting, brutal action scenes featuring all of the cast, but considering the main antagonist is played by Daniella Pineda, we get to see something that feels unique when compared to the original, with Daniella describing the action in this film as “next level”.

The intention isn’t action for action's sake, though, with it feeling earned throughout the roughly two-hour runtime, with Daniella going on to add about her character: “she's not just a stone-cold killer, it's the type of roles that I would like to see more women get to play. They're certainly here in the real world, you know.”

She continued: “What's very satisfying is, you know, we've now sort of had opportunities to see the movie with audiences, when you hear an audience audibly gasp, then you know you're doing something right, because it means that the stakes and how invested people are in these characters, they are literally leaning forward.”

When speaking of the third act, the director Gavin talked at length about not having action for action's sake, but instead, “it was about ‘How are these guys working together? How are they now united, knowing what the stakes are?’ We knew what they wanted. So inside the action and the choreography, it was about the emotional line between the two brothers, and how they are going to try to accomplish this together.”

Unexpected line dancing

Further exploring the humour on display, the relationship between Ben and Jon’s characters, and bringing a light-hearted moment is a line dancing sequence that sees Ben Affleck’s character put on his dancing shoes while trying to woo a woman in a bar. In Affleck’s words, referring to his dancing, “America wasn't asking for it, but they're gonna get it.”

When talking about the scene, Gavin added, “the other thing about the scene that we were trying to accomplish was that it’s important, we just left the plot of the movie. Are we gonna leave the plot for a while? It's gonna go out because that whole scene is really about the brothers. They've been in all this conflict, driving up to that scene. Once he goes to dance, Brax is like, 'That's it.’ That started to unite the two brothers, and it was just baby steps to get these guys there.”

Affleck had the final word on the heartwarming scene between the two brothers, where he stated the sequence “anchors the audience by having him [Brax] celebrate his brother. That's what you're connected to.”

The Accountant 2 releases exclusively in cinemas on the 25th April, 2025.

• For more interviews, check out 5 things you need to know about Sinners, according to director Ryan Coogler