After a string of production delays, The Old Guard 2, Netflix and Skydance’s sequel to the 2020 immortal action film starring Charlize Theron, is now streaming. In typical sequel fashion, the follow-up to the Image Comics adaptation aims to not only raise the emotional stakes to greater heights with Theron’s Andy as she comes to grips with her newfound mortality, but it also pits her against her long-lost companion Quynh (Veronica Ngô) and an older immortal in Uma Thurman’s Discord.
io9 spoke with director Victoria Mahoney (assistant director for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) about her guiding principle in taking over the reins of the story from previous director Gina Prince-Bythewood, as well as its ending.
Isaiah Colbert, io9: This film picks up where the 2020 original left off. What drew you to The Old Guard universe, and what made helming its sequel a must as a creative?
Victoria Mahoney: In different ratios of equal measure, the actors, the themes, [and] the action bucked against drama.
io9: What was your creative North Star in shaping the sequel’s tone, especially since it’s releasing five years after its predecessor?
Mahoney: Oh, I like that. Love a North Star. With sincere respect, Old Guard 1 was the North Star. It was very important to honor what was put forward in such a wonderful, caring, measured manner. I didn’t want to betray what Gina had put forward, and I thought that the actors did such a beautiful job with plausibility and honesty, tackling this massive theme of “what if you could live forever?” My North Star, I would say, was plausibility.
io9: Immortality remains a meditative throughline in The Old Guard, but action also serves as its heartbeat. How did you approach the choreography for the movie to reflect an elevation of the physical and emotional evolution of its characters?
Mahoney: Lovely. As a kid [I] climbed trees, jumped out of trees, fell out of trees, raced go-karts, taught myself how to ride a bike with no seat and brakes, and was always trying to get in on the action, doing whatever I saw in a fight movie when I walked out of the theater—as every other kid was at the time. I wasn’t really doing the right moves, but I thought I was. My wish [is] for some grain of emotionality when an individual moves their arm, their leg, neck, chin, or their heart and soul.
I am deeply invested in making sure that I feel why they’re fighting, I feel why they’re resisting, I feel why they’re ducking, I feel why they’re punching, I feel why they’re hitting, I feel why they’re swinging, I feel why they’re running, I feel why they’re jumping. I’m deeply invested in what it feels like inside that individual as they’re moving, breathing, and navigating, versus “Oh, that was kind of cool.” That terrified state of mind versus when someone’s like, “Holy shit!” That’s what I’m looking for.
io9: With Uma Thurman joining the cast, fans are thrilled to see her share the screen with Charlize Theron. How did their legacies as action icons influence how you staged the direction of their confrontation?
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