Netflix's 'The Old Guard' hoping to kickstart a trilogy

Ahead of its launch on Netflix next week, the director of new blockbuster comic book adaptation The Old Guard says they’re hoping to make a trilogy of films based on the source material.

The film, starring Charlize Theron as an immortal mercenary, lands on the streaming service on 10 July and its director Gina Prince-Bythewood told Digital Spy that any sequels would depend on the audience reaction to the first film.

"It is about the audience, does the audience want to see more? Obviously you hope an audience wants to see more.

"I know that Greg Rucka, who wrote the graphic novel and the script, he always envisioned this as a trilogy. 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."

First published in 2017 by Image Comics, The Old Guard tells the story of old soldiers who never die “and yet cannot seem to fade away”. It was followed by a second run The Old Guard Book Two: Force Multiplied, in 2020, which is part way through publication.

Reviews for The Old Guard have just started to land online and early signs are looking good.

Read more: Everything coming to Netflix in July

Variety says Prince-Bythewood “stages the fight scenes with ripe executionary finesse, and she teases out a certain soulful quality in her cast”, while Indiewire called it “Netflix’s best 2020 action movie”.

Here’s a synopsis: Led by a warrior named Andy (Charlize Theron), a covert group of tight-knit mercenaries with a mysterious inability to die have fought to protect the mortal world for centuries. But when the team is recruited to take on an emergency mission and their extraordinary abilities are suddenly exposed, it’s up to Andy and Nile (KiKi Layne), the newest soldier to join their ranks, to help the group eliminate the threat of those who seek to replicate and monetize their power by any means necessary. Based on the acclaimed graphic novel by Greg Rucka and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (LOVE & BASKETBALL, BEYOND THE LIGHTS), THE OLD GUARD is a gritty, grounded, action-packed story that shows living forever is harder than it looks.

The Old Guard streams exclusively on Netflix from 10 July.