“We don’t see that quite as frequently”: When Queen Latifah made her feelings known about what made The Equalizer special

When The Equalizer premiered on CBS in 2021, it received acclaim for its fresh take on the franchise and for the performance of the lead, Queen Latifah. The series is a reboot of the eponymous 1980s show, with Latifah playing Robyn McCall, a former CIA operative turned street vigilante.

Though the ratings of the show dwindled over the years, and it has recently been canceled, it is still considered a landmark series for having a black female lead, which is not quite the norm on network television.

In a 2021 interview with TVLine, Latifah said that is exactly what made The Equalizer special. The actress said that while black women are leading from the forefront in various fields in the world, we rarely see them as leads on hour-long network dramas. She said the CBS series finally changed the trend with her casting:

“Black women have been equalizing for years and years. From Hatshepsut to Stacey Abrams to Kamala Harris, to my mother and my grandmother, seeing a Black woman equalize is not a new thing to me.”

“Seeing it on network TV once every week? That may be a little newer. We don’t see that quite as frequently, and I think we need to see more of it, if anything.”

Queen Latifah once revealed how having a black female lead made The Equalizer special

Queen Latifah is one of the few black women who have headlined network shows. The rest of the women in the list include Viola Davis, Kerry Washington, Simone Missick, Kylie Bunbury, and Teresa Graves. In her interview, Latifah said that television often neglects the power and magic of black women, and that is what The Equalizer aspired to change:

“We’ve been doing what we have to do. And we’ve been carrying a lot of things on our back. Unfortunately, sometimes, we’re not lifted up in the way we should be when it comes to how much we actually carry and how much grit we have.”

“And how much determination we have, and how powerful we are, and how magical we are, you know? These things come naturally, and it’s time for the world to just see it on a normal basis and in a very natural way. Tell it through the lens of a Black woman. Tell it through me.”

In the crime drama, Latifah consistently pushed boundaries as she performed some high-octane action sequences. Her performance continued to be a highlight of the show until it was canceled by CBS in May 2025. Talking about how she approached the action scenes:

“I love all of the action sequences when I get to really kick some b**t. It’s a lot of work, so I have a great amount of respect for stunt people and what they have to do to accomplish making people like me look really good. Obviously, I can’t do all of the stunts, but I’m able to do the intimate, close-contact fighting and things like that.”

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Apart from Latifah, The Equalizer also stars Adam Goldberg as Harry Keshegian, Laya DeLeon Hayes as Delilah Fulton, Lorraine Toussaint as Viola "Aunt Vi" Marsette, Valarie Pettiford as Carol Dante, and Tory Kittles as Marcus Dante.

The Equalizer is available to stream on Paramount+.

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