The Old Guard 2 on Netflix: Everything we know so far

If you want The Old Guard 2 and want it right now, we’ve got good news and bad news. Yes, the film we’ve been waiting for ever since we finished watching The Old Guard is actually happening. 

The bad news, though, is you’re going to wait a bit for the action-packed comic book adaptation. We’ve only just recently learned that the script has been written.

While Netflix hasn’t released any concrete viewership info, The Old Guard received rave reviews from critics, so it seemed likely that the streaming service would order a sequel. Plus, the movie ended in a way that left room for more … much more. Spoilers ahead!

The Old Guard saw Charlize Theron’s Andromache (aka Andy) and her team of immortal fighters face off against a nefarious pharma exec who wanted to use them as lab rats and make money off the findings. He was aided by former CIA agent Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who had nobler intentions as he was grieving his dead wife. They captured Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli), and when Andy went to retrieve them, they captured her, too.

In the end, it was new recruit Nile (KiKi Layne) who rescued her teammates and took down the pharma bro. However, Andy’s wounds stopped automatically healing, which indicated she had lost her immortality. She also banished Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) for betraying the team by cooperating with Copley. 

But Andy remains alive, even if she is not un-killable anymore. Nile is a formidable new part of the group. So, there’s plenty of storytelling that could be done in a 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

Charlize Theron told Variety that The Old Guard 2 starts shooting in the first quarter of 2022. This makes us think the film would be arriving in theaters by Fall 2022 at the very earliest, and possibly later given all the post-production work to be done.

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 Qhyn, 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. Of course, 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 2 cast

Presuming all of the major players from The Old Guard will be back, here’s who will be in The Old Guard 2:

• Charlize Theron as Andy aka Andromache of Scythia
• KiKi Layne as Nile Freeman, a former US Marine
• 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 main villain of The Old Guard, Steven Merrick (Harry Melling), won’t be back, since he’s dead. 

However, there will probably be some new characters in The Old Guard 2. We’ll have to wait and see.

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, I 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 I’m not alone.

You can buy  The Old Guard’s comic book on Amazon. Its second edition is currently on pre-order, due out in September.