“The Old Guard” became a blueprint for the kind of mid-tier action movies that can thrive on Netflix. The Charlize Theron vehicle about immortal mercenaries with regenerative abilities took its sweet time getting a sequel, to the point that in July 2024, /Film conducted an investigation on whether “The Old Guard 2” was still happening. The answer to the question eventually turned out to be “yes,” and as “The Old Guard 2” trailer confirmed, the movie even pays off the original film’s most horrifying moment by exploring what five centuries of constantly drowning inside an iron maiden has done to Quynh (Ngô Thanh Vân). Spoiler: She’s not happy, and she has the first and most powerful immortal, Discord (Uma Thurman), in her corner.
The “Old Guard” film series has plenty of potential and could easily spawn another sequel or six. Unfortunately, critics haven’t been kind to “The Old Guard 2,” which is enough to make me wonder whether the series’ story might be over. Equally concerning are Theron’s comments from her interview with The Hollywood Reporter, in which she revealed that “The Old Guard 3” is far from a done deal:
“One thing I’ve learned in this business is that there are no guarantees, and it’s really gracious of [Netflix] to not have pushed us into another direction. This was always where we wanted to land the film, and it’s also very reminiscent of the first one. We never ended the first one thinking we were going to do a second, but that was just how it happened to be. So, we treated this one exactly the same, but I’m being completely honest when I say that we have absolutely no idea what that [third film] would even look like.”
