The Old Guard 2
Netflix
The Old Guard 2 has arrived as a typical Netflix dichotomy. Awful critic and audience scores, yet still debuting and staying as the #1 movie on the service, above the fantastic KPop Demon Hunters. So, if it’s bad, but people are watching, does that mean we’re getting The Old Guard 3?
It’s complicated, and I would argue at this point, not especially promising. Well, I guess it’s promising if you don’t want another one to happen.
This movie was five years in the making, a lengthy gap for a sequel, and as for whether there’s going to be another film, we have a few updates from those involved. First, the director, Victoria Mahoney, speaking to The Direct:
“I’m not in the room. I’m not in that discussion of whether there will be another or not.” She explained that the lengthy production timeline for The Old Guard 2 prevented her from committing to other opportunities, stating, “The duration of this film took me from other projects I have, so I am legally obliged to some other projects. So, I will be for the next six, seven years, on some other jobs.”
That’s not a huge shock, as Mahoney did not direct the first film (and it’s possible that may explain some of the quality drop, as few other factors changed). Given her apparent schedule and this movie’s reception, her not coming back is no great surprise.
But they need Charlize Theron, star of the show, to continue the cliffhanger ending they set up, leaving things open for more installments. She just spoke to THR about the possibility of making a trilogy out of it:
“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.”
It’s not great if this was where they wanted to “land the film” as it was very bad, and I’m not sure how it was reminiscent of the first one, which was much better. The idea here is that they left it open on purpose for a third movie, but there is apparently not even a concept for that, nor indications from Netflix at this point it’s going to happen.
It also stands to reason that Theron may want to focus on other projects. She’s currently filming what will probably be one of the highest-profile movies of the decade, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, where she will reportedly play Circe in the ensemble cast. Outside of that, she apparently has four other movies in the works: Atomic Blonde 2, another action film, and Two for the Money and Apex. But this is Netflix, and with that comes Netflix money, so who knows?
I would bet that this is the last we see of The Old Guard unless the second film manages to put up truly stunning numbers. It’s doing well, but that well? I doubt it.
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