Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Equalizer 3!
Summary
- The Equalizer 3 introduces a new character, Greg Dyer, who has a history with Robert McCall, connecting to the events of The Equalizer 2.
- The pension guy, Greg Dyer, played by Marco Giuliani, is a new character introduced in The Equalizer 3 and was not present in the previous movies of the franchise.
- While it would have been more impactful to include a returning character from the previous films, The Equalizer 3 focuses on establishing Greg Dyer as a significant character in the trilogy and tying the sequels together.
The Equalizer 3 gives a mystery pension guy a rather important role to play, and the teased history he has in the franchise raises questions about whether he appeared in a previous movie. Denzel Washington’s Robert McCall returned to take on the Italian Mafia known as the Camorra in the third installment of the action series. The actual motives behind McCall’s actions are left a mystery for much of the runtime, only for him to reveal that he took on the mafia to recover a stolen pension. The pension belonged to Greg Dyer, who became the latest beneficiary of McCall’s ability to get people the justice they deserve.
It is not until The Equalizer 3‘s ending that audiences get to meet Greg Dyer and learn the truth about why McCall took on the mafia. This comes through a conversation he has with Collins (Dakota Fanning) as she recovers from injuries sustained by a car bomb. Denzel Washington’s character explains that Greg Dyer is a former customer he had as a Lyft driver who lost his pension fund as part of a security breach. The established shared history between McCall and the pension guy is likely to leave audiences wondering if Greg was in a previous Equalizer movie as a minor character.
Equalizer 3’s Pension Guy Was Not In The Equalizer 2
Simply put, the pension guy in The Equalizer 3 was not in a previous Equalizer movie. A character named Greg Dyer is not listed in the credits, as the role instead is seemingly credited as “Evicted Husband.” Marco Giuliani is the actor who plays this role in The Equalizer 3‘s cast. Giuliani did not appear in The Equalizer 2 or the first installment. Furthermore, no character named Greg Dyer has been credited in the previous franchise installments. This helps leave no doubts that the pension guy is a new character introduced for the trilogy capper instead of a surprise returning franchise character.
Robert McCall’s History With Greg Dyer Connects To Equalizer 2
The pension guy that The Equalizer 3 might not have appeared in a previous movie, but his history with Robert McCall is a direct connection to The Equalizer 2. The sequel gave Denzel Washington’s character a new job as a Lyft driver following his time working at a Home Mart. The Equalizer 2 showed McCall drive all sorts of people around town as part of the job, ranging from a soldier, an elderly man, young kids, and even an abused woman. None of these interactions had any bearing on the sequel’s main story and villain, so it was smart for The Equalizer 3 to make the job important again.
It is somewhat disappointing that The Equalizer 3 did not use one of the individuals audiences already met, though. Any number of Lyft customers could have been the ones who got McCall to go fight the Italian mafia. This would have made the pension guy in The Equalizer 3 a bit more significant for those invested in the franchise and helped tie the two sequels together in a bigger way. However, the movie is lacking almost any returning characters from past movies, which could explain the decision to make Greg Dyer a new character.