On his publicity tour for The Equalizer 3, director Antoine Fuqua was greeted with questions about the franchise potential for another of his beloved Denzel Washington-led films — Training Day. Fans have been clamoring for a Training Day prequel ever since the prospect was teased by Warner Bros. back in 2019, and Fuqua provided a brief update on the possibility. Unfortunately, the director explained that a prequel at this point is highly unlikely, and the reason is the star himself.

As Fuqua elaborates in an interview with Digital Spy, the role of Alonzo Harris that Washington made famous — and won a Best Actor Oscar for — in the classic 2001 crime drama would have to be reprised by Denzel, given his indelible association with the character. However, according to Fuqua, too much time has passed since the original film, and transforming Washington's look to appear more than twenty years younger would be nearly impossible at this point.

“There was a time when a prequel for Training Day sounded interesting, but it would have had to be done with Denzel back then, when he was closer to that age,” said Fuqua. “It would have been exciting what he did in Vegas. I just don’t think it would be the same without him.”

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Fuqua continued, “I’m not sure. It’s still good over evil, no matter what. No matter how seductive evil can be, you still make the right choices, but the world has changed.”

One rumor suggested Denzel Washington's real-life son, John David Washington, might play a young version of his dad (a la James Gandolfini's son Michael playing a young Tony Soprano in The Many Saints of Newark), but it never materialized. The recent Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny showed a de-aged Harrison Ford, but only for the first 15 minutes of the movie or so. That'd be a tough conceit to pull off for an entire film. Maybe Antoine Fuqua would be better served to make a crossover film around Ethan Hawke's character called Training Before Sunrise, where Detective Jake Hoyt falls in love with Julie Delpy after long talks on the beach.