Back in 2020, The Old Guard broke out as one of Netflix’s actually good movies—they do sometimes make good ones—and in short order, a sequel was greenlit and was in production in 2022. And then…nothing. Years passed, time marched on, we moved inexorably closer to death, and still, The Old Guard 2—sadly not titled The Older Guard—never materialized.
Charlize Theron offered an explanation last year, saying the film got shut down during post-production when Netflix underwent internal restructuring. Then in 2023 came the dual labor strikes, and people assumed those had an impact, too, though it was never confirmed. Eventually post-production resumed, and last fall the film underwent a couple weeks of reshoots. And now, finally, The Old Guard 2 is ready for the world.
The trailer dropped yesterday, and honestly, it’s been so long I had to go back and read the Wikipedia plot description of the first movie to remind myself what happened in The Old Guard. I mostly just remember Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli as immortal lovers Joe and Nicky. To refresh: Charlize Theron stars as immortal warrior Andy, who has now lost her immortality. Her protégé is Nile, played by KiKi Layne, and they belong to a cohort of secret immortal warriors who have been “fighting for humanity” for centuries. Also, Quỳnh, Andy’s oldest “friend”—in quotes because the subtext is almost just text that Andy and Quỳnh were in love—was thrown into the sea in an iron maiden, cursed to drown forever for being a witch. The Old Guard goes hard.
The sequel reunites Andy and Nile, and it looks like Quỳnh (Vân Veronica Ngô) is getting out of that iron maiden at long last. And there is a new oldest person ever, played by Uma Thurman, who is out to get revenge on Andy for mysterious reasons. The trailer heavily features Theron and Thurman squaring up, because whoever edited it knows what the people want. There is not, however, a lot of Nicky and Joe, which is too bad. They’re great, I hope we see more of them in the film.
Also new to the film is director Victoria Mahoney, taking over from Gina Prince-Bythewood. Mahoney made history as the second-unit director on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, becoming the first woman to direct on a Star Wars film in any capacity. That’s great for her but more than a little embarrassing for LucasFilm, that they can’t figure out how to support women directors (see also: Patty Jenkins). She remains the only woman who has directed on a Star Wars feature film to date, though Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is slated to direct a standalone feature film (we’ll see), and several women have directed episodes of various Star Wars TV series.
The Old Guard will finally be released on July 2. The theatrical competition that weekend is stiff, as that is when Jurassic World Rebirth opens, and I expect that film to be a monster. But I will definitely make time for The Old Guard 2. Hopefully it’s worth the wait.
Here's Charlize at Kimmel yesterday in LA.
