Netflix R-Rated Action Superhero Movie With Marvel Stars On Quest For Immortality

Gina Prince-Bythwood was hired to direct The Old Guard, and backed by a $70 million budget. Prince-Bythwood became the first black woman to direct a big-budget comic book film. In its first four weeks on Netflix, the streamer reported that 78 million households tuned in to watch the film, making it, at the time, the seventh-most watched straight-to-streaming title of 2020.

The Old Guard follows four centuries-old warriors, Andy, Booker, Joe, and Nicky, all with unexplainable regenerative powers. Working as mercenaries, the group aims to uphold morality with their missions. When they are ambushed by former CIA operative James Copley, who set up a fake mission to capture girls kidnapped in South Sudan, they discover his intentions to reveal and extort their superhuman powers.

Throughout the film, they are forced to face the consequences of their gift and must truly come to terms with the significance of the purposes of their missions.

The Old Guard garnered a daily good reception. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a critic score and audience score of 80 percent and 70 percent respectively. Top critic, Soraya Nadia McDonald of Andscape reflected, “Given a team of highly regarded actors in Charlize Theron, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and KiKi Layne, Prince-Bythewood delivers both satisfying, high-octane fights and a proper storyline to stitch them together.” 

With its successful release, Netflix ordered the production of a sequel for The Old Guard. Filming began on June 13, 2022, revealed in an X post from Victoria Mahoney, the new director for the film. Mahoney is most notably known for being the first black woman to direct a Star Wars project, serving as second-unit director in The Rise of Skywalker.

Nearly the entire cast will be reprising their roles, and actors Uma Thurman and Henry Golding have been recruited to star in the sequel.

While the setup for The Old Guard 2 hasn’t been explicitly revealed, audiences assume it will pick up right after the unresolved ending of the first movie. Charlize Theron will serve on the production team for the sequel, and hopes to explore more of the original comic book characters that didn’t fully make it to the screen in the original. With Greg Rucka, the author of the source material, again serving as writer, that likelihood is pretty high. 

The Old Guard is currently available to stream on Netflix and we encourage you to do so in anticipation of the release of The Old Guard 2. Filming for the sequel finished in September 2022, but due to leadership changes and rumored production issues with Netflix, it is unclear when the final product will be released.

Since the original only had a one-and-a-half-year production turnaround, fans have started to grow impatient. However, it was recently confirmed that the film is in its final stages of post-production. Until more news is released from the production team, we must find satisfaction in re-watching The Old Guard on Netflix.