Finally, some news has emerged about The Old Guard 2! The Netflix action-packed comic book adaptation thrilled viewers way back in July 2020. A sequel was soon confirmed by star Charlize Theron, but the project seemed stalled. Now, there's some exciting casting news — Uma Thurman and Henry Golding are hopping on board The Old Guard 2!
The Old Guard saw Charlize Theron's Andromache (aka Andy) and her team of immortal fighters face off against a nefarious pharmaceutical corporation scheme to use them as lab rats for money. They were aided by former CIA agent Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who had somewhat nobler intentions as he was grieving his dead wife. Several of the warriors, including Andy herself, were captured.
In the end, it was new recruit Nile (KiKi Layne) who rescued her teammates and took down the pharma villains. However, Andy's wounds stopped automatically healing, which indicated she had lost her immortality. She also banished Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) for betraying the team.
But Andy remains alive, even if she is not un-killable anymore. Nile is a formidable new part of the group. So, plenty of storytelling lays ahead for the sequel. In fact, director Gina Prince-Bythewood told Digital Spy that The Old Guard was envisioned as a trilogy franchise.
"I know that Greg Rucka, who wrote the graphic novel in the script, he always envisioned this as a trilogy," she said. "I know where the story goes, and it's pretty great. So if the audience is eager for it, there's definitely more stories to tell."
Here's everything you need to know about The Old Guard 2.
The Old Guard 2 release date speculation
Netflix hasn't set The Old Guard release date, nor has it even indicated a window of time.
Filming only just began in June 2022, according to Variety. Theron has had a busy spring, with cameos in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and The Boys season 3. She also recently finished filming Fast X.
"I’m excited about our team coming back and having had all this time to really think about what we want the next story to be,” she said. "It’s a big ask to want everybody involved to do action that’s raising the bar of what we did last time. It takes time and energy and effort and everybody has put that forth. I want to see the fruits of that labor.”
Speaking of labor, Theron is sporting a new hairstyle for The Old Guard 2 — a black mullet! "We needed something that felt like time had passed, so for that, you go with the ol’ mullet,” she joked to the Hollywood Reporter.
The Old Guard 2 is directed by Victoria Mahoney, from a screenplay by Greg Rucka, graphic novel's co-creator, and Leandro Fernández. Mahoney takes over from Prince-Bythewood, who continues to serve as an executive producer.
The Old Guard 2 cast
The Old Guard 2 cast is led by Charlize Theron as Andy aka Andromache of Scythia, the oldest immortal and leader of their group.
She'll be joined by several returning cast members:
- KiKi Layne as Nile Freeman, a former US Marine and new immortal recruit
- Matthias Schoenaerts as Booker aka Sebastian Le Livre, a French soldier who fought under Napoleon
- Marwan Kenzari as Joe aka Yusuf Al-Kaysani, a Muslim warrior from the Crusades, as well as Nicky's lover
- Luca Marinelli as Nicky aka Nicoló di Genova, a former Crusader who once fought Joe and then became his lover
- Chiwetel Ejiofor as James Copley, former CIA agent who is enlisted to help the immortals with their missions
- Van Veronica Ngo as Quynh, Andy's immortal partner who was locked in an iron maiden and tortured with repeated drowning for 500 years
The Old Guard 2 is adding some new faces into the mix: Uma Thurman (Kill Bill) and Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians, Snake Eyes). Their roles are still undisclosed.
The Old Guard 2 plot possibilities
To speculate on the plot of The Old Guard 2, let's first talk about the first Old Guard movie's ending.
As we mentioned above, The Old Guard ends with the team having defeated pharma exec Merrick. Copley apologizes for his part in what happened, and as penance, the team enlists his help in finding new missions and hiding their activities. Think of him as a kind of Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "Let's go to work," Andy says.
But one member of the immortal team is left behind: Booker. Andy banished him for 100 years for betraying them.
In an end credits scene, we see Booker six months later. He returns to his Paris apartment to find ... Quynh (Van Veronica Ngo). She was Andy's partner-in-immortal arms but was locked in an iron maiden and thrown into the depths of the ocean. Andy searched for her for 500 years during which Quynh kept drowning and reviving. Eventually, Andy stopped looking, a heavy burden of guilt that she revealed to Nile.
Well, it seems Quynh got out of that iron maiden and has found Booker. But why? Is she angry with Andy for not finding her and looking for vengeance?
Quynh's return is part of Rucka's comic books and Prince-Bythewood felt she had to include that end scene in The Old Guard. "The sequence with Quynh, for me, was really emotional and I cared about this woman caught in this horrible existence of drowning for 500 years. The psychology of that alone… I wanted to know what happened," the director told Collider. "It’s a hint of, ok she’s alive. It was giving a hint, hopefully not having anyone feeling like they’re cheated of what happens next. I want you to want more, but again it is wholly up to the audience."
So ... what happens next? We can glean some possible storylines from Rucka's sequel comic series, Force Multiplied.
However, there are some differences between Rucka's The Old Guard comics and the movie. For instance, in the comics, Quynh is named Noriko and she's Japanese. Rucka changed the character to accommodate the actress, Ngo, who is Vietnamese. Also, in the comics, she is swept overboard from a ship during a storm, rather than deliberately locked into an iron maiden. Rucka revealed to Polygon that the change came about due to filming budget constraints.
So keeping in mind that things can change, here's what happens in Force Multiplied: Quynh returns from her long underwater ordeal with a much darker, twisted view of humanity. And now she wants Andy to join her, both as her lover and as her partner in a quest to make humanity suffer. However, Andy is now mortal and a regular human being. Plus, we don't see her going to the dark side. That sets up a spectacular showdown between Andy and Quynh — and we are here for it.
The Old Guard prequels and spinoffs
Rucka's comic series is set to be a trilogy, and thus, it makes sense for there to be three main Old Guard movies. However, fans are clamoring for prequels and spinoffs about some of the immortals. Personally, we want to see Joe and Nicky in the Crusades, battling against one another and killing each other — then waking up alive, falling in love. All of it. And we're not alone.
You can buy The Old Guard's comic books on Amazon:
