There is something peculiarly 1980s about the original series of The Equalizer, Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim’s action drama about a former covert operations officer named Robert McCall, who hoped to atone for his past misdeeds by making himself available to people in need as a problem-solving freelancer. He even ran his business off a newspaper classified ad: “Got a problem? Odds against you? Call The Equalizer”.
When producers Andrew Marlowe and Terri Miller sat down to recreate it for a modern audience, they decided their new McCall – renamed Robyn McCall – would be the singer/actress Queen Latifah.
Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall in The Equalizer.Credit:Sophy Holland / CBS / Universal Television
It shouldn’t seem so audacious an idea, but for the fact that only a handful of women have ever been given the solo lead role of an hour-long network television drama. The first was Teresa Graves who starred in the police drama Get Christie Love! in 1974. More recently, Kerry Washington (Scandal) and Viola Davis (How To Get Away With Murder).
Latifah describes Robyn McCall as a natural leader. “She is extremely skillful at what she does, at what she’s learnt, and she knows how to delegate,” Latifah says.
“But what is most important to her right now is that she’s done with all of that,” she adds. “She’s done working for the people who make the high decisions, the big decisions. She’s done with the greed. She’s done with the uber-powerful. She is all about taking what she has learnt through the years, what she’s mastered deftly, and using it for everybody.”
The original series, which starred Edward Woodward, lasted for four seasons and 88 one-hour episodes. Despite its relatively short shelf life, it was re-booted in 2014 (and 2018) as a pair of feature films starring Denzel Washington. And before he died in January, original series co-creator Richard Lindheim was involved in the new television reboot.
Denzel Washington in the movie reboot of The Equalizer.Credit:Columbia Pictures
Latifah describes Lindheim as “a sweetheart of a man”. The pair pitched the reboot together and the US network CBS picked up a potential first season. “We would get into conversations about sci-fi and all kinds of other, crazy things that had nothing to do with The Equalizer,” Latifah says. “Fortunately he got to see the finished product before he transitioned and he felt very positive about it. I’m happy to have had his blessing throughout this whole process.”
Though the format was created in the 1980s, the reboot taps a contemporary frustration with big business and institutional corruption, Latifah says. “She doesn’t want to equalise for billionaires anymore, she doesn’t want to equalise for countries who play chess with people, she wants to equalise for people,” she says.
