Published Jan 30, 2026, 3:59 PM EST
Grant Hermanns is a TV News Editor, Interview Host and Reviewer for ScreenRant, having joined the team in early 2021. He got his start in the industry with Moviepilot, followed by working at ComingSoon.net. When not indulging in his love of film/TV, Grant is making his way through his gaming backlog and exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends.
While he is said to be eyeing two more installments in the series, one of Denzel Washington's biggest franchises is about to leave its free streaming home.
Beginning with the 2014 film, The Equalizer franchise has followed Washington as former Marine and DIA officer Robert McCall, who attempts to live a quiet life away from the violence of his past, but finds himself turning to his old skillset as he inadvertently crosses paths with a variety of deadly threats. The trilogy of action movies also notably gave Washington his first reunion with director Antoine Fuqua in over a decade after 2001's Training Day netted the star his first Best Actor Oscar.
Now, some 12 years after the first movie hit theaters, The Equalizer franchise is about to lose its free streaming home on Tubi. Both the first and second installments in the action franchise will officially leave the platform beginning on January 31, while the third continues to maintain its paid streaming homes of Hulu and FuboTV.
Adapted from the Edward Woodward-led '80s action series, Washington's work on The Equalizer films marked a unique chapter in his filmography for a few reasons. In addition to the aforementioned reunion with Fuqua, the franchise served as the Oscar winner's biggest foray into the one-man army subgenre, which was becoming increasingly popular thanks to Liam Neeson's Taken and Keanu Reeves' John Wick movies.
More importantly is that The Equalizer films are the only franchise Washington has been with from the beginning. Throughout his 50-year career, the star only has four sequels in his roster, which include the previously mentioned action series and Ridley Scott's long-gestating Gladiator II, while the likes of The Bone Collector and Inside Man have sparked rumors and proper negotiations that ultimately never materialized.
From a performance standpoint, it's easy to see why Washington chose The Equalizer as the franchise he decided to stick with. Though critics have been largely mixed about the films, audiences have been far more embracing of them, netting the trilogy a solid average of 78% on Rotten Tomatoes. Even better is the Equalizer franchise's combined $573 million box office haul, with each film staying consistent in the $190 million range.
This success wasn't solely beholden to Washington's films, either, as CBS followed it up shortly thereafter with the Queen Latifah-led Equalizer reboot series. The show, never explicitly addressing the film's events nor calling itself a separate title, ran for five seasons on the network before being cancelled, along with a planned spinoff that would've been led by Bosch's Titus Welliver and Civil War's Juani Feliz. Its cancellation was met with division from fans of the series, with reports indicating costs were the biggest sticking point for continuing it.
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But while The Equalizer movies leaving Tubi, where the first four seasons of Latifah's show can also be streamed, is something of a disappointment, it's not entirely bad news for fans of the franchise. All three films are still available to stream on Hulu, while Washington himself stated that a fourth and fifth film in the series were in the works. With Latifah's schedule now more open in the wake of the show's cancellation, it will be interesting to see if Washington and Fuqua look to welcome her to the mix in the future.
Created by Michael Sloan, Richard Lindheim
Character(s) Robert McCall, Robyn McCall
The Equalizer is a crime-focused action-thriller franchise initially created by Michael Sloan and Richard Lindheim. The franchise began with the 1985 series that followed Robert McCall, a retired intelligence agent who uses his deadly and varied skillset to help those that society cannot save. The film franchise has stood out as the most iconic, with Denzel Washington in the role of the new Robert McCall, with a reboot television series starring Queen Latifah as Robyn McCall.
English (US) ·