In 2017, acclaimed comic book creators Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez debuted The Old
Guard, a story based on an instantly memorable concept: A team of soldiers who seemingly
can't die and have been fighting various battles for centuries.
But before you see Charlize Theron in action as an axe-wielding ancient warrior, you might
have quite a few questions about the comic, the movie, and the immortal characters at
the heart of this story.
Here's what you need to know about The Old Guard before you watch.
The Old Guard began life as a five-issue miniseries created by writer Greg Rucka and artist Leandro
Fernandez and published by Image Comics.
The first issue of the series arrived in February of 2017 with a high-concept hook that quickly
drew fans in.
The story follows veteran soldiers now living their lives as world-traveling mercenaries.
But we're not just talking about people who've been at it for decades here: This particular
band of mercenaries is made up of functionally immortal humans who have been around for hundreds,
and in one case thousands, of years.
When their bodies are injured, they feel all the pain that anyone would feel.
But their bodies are able to heal from the most vicious deadly wounds and they keep on
going.
While it is possible for them to die, none of them know exactly when or how that will
happen, if ever.
They've lived countless lives over the various ages of human history, had countless adventures,
and known countless people who've long since passed on while they keep on living.
They spend their days taking on mercenary missions and keeping an otherwise low profile,
until one day an operation is revealed to be an elaborate setup.
Someone out there knows who they are, and they want the secret to the Old Guard's immortality
by any means necessary.
As The Old Guard begins, the band of mercenaries at the heart of the story are a quartet led
by Andy.
Andy has seen millennia come and go, and it's made quite an impression on her character.
By the time we meet the Old Guard's leader, all those years of living and killing have
taken a toll on the immortal badass.
Rucka explained:
"For Andy who was extraordinarily old, the question has really become, 'Why hasn't it
ended?'
Why keep going?
You know, she is six to seven times as old as the next oldest member of the Old Guard
when we meet them in the movie.
And that's an astonishing age."
Joining Andy on her missions are three other ageless brothers-in-arms.
Joe and Nicky met as soldiers on opposite sides of the First Crusade almost 1,000 years
ago, and discovered their immortality when they couldn't kill each other.
Their violent first encounter eventually blossomed into love, which means they both have someone
to spend eternity with.
Then there's Booker, a French veteran of the Napoleonic Wars who realized he couldn't die
after they tried to hang him for desertion.
When the story begins, it's been ages since the Old Guard have met any other immortals.
Then they discover Nile, a young soldier who's just discovered that she can come back from
the dead.
As Nile realizes the implications of her gift, it's up to Andy and her crew to prepare her
for the often brutal life of an immortal soldier.
The form of immortality that members of the Old Guard are gifted with seems to be exceedingly
rare.
They connect with each other while they're sleeping, and sometimes dream of each other's
faces for years before they actually meet in real life.
And when they're mortally wounded, their bodies simply heal and they move on, no matter how
gruesome or seemingly life-ending the injury might be.
"Let's just say we're very hard to kill."
Despite all that, there's one more key rule in this world: The characters aren't fully
immortal.
They can die, and their deaths might come at any time.
They just have no way of knowing if the next bullet will be the one that kills them.
It didn't take long for the world to take notice of The Old Guard and its clever high-concept
hook.
Skydance Media picked up the rights to the comic in March 2017, before the second issue
of Rucka and Fernandez's first five-issue miniseries had even been released.
To make things even more exciting for fans of the comic, Rucka himself wrote the movie's
screenplay.
By the summer of 2018, the project landed a director in Gina Prince-Bythewood, best
known for films like Love & Basketball and Beyond the LIghts.
In working with Prince-Bythewood on the story, Rucka found it important to focus more on
the team aspect of The Old Guard, and specifically on the story of newcomer Nile.
Giving her character more focus in the film version became a key to getting the script
to work.
Rucka explained:
"In revising it and getting it to a place where Gina could shoot a movie, really being
able to dive in on Nile and give her the story that the comic sort of denied her, that was
enormously rewarding for me."
By 2019, The Old Guard was well on its way to becoming an action movie spectacle, thanks
in no small part to a key bit of casting.
Though he didn't participate in casting the film, Rucka said he said he was "overjoyed"
when he learned that Oscar winner Charlize Theron signed on to play Andy.
Rucka said:
"She is one of the most courageous actors of this generation, in my opinion.
And I mean that in the sense that, she does not take easy roles."
With Theron in place as the film's leader, it was time to bring in the rest of the team.
Kiki Layne joined the cast to play Nile, the newcomer to the crew who's just discovered
her immortal nature and all it implies.
Matthias Schoenaerts became Booker, while Luca Marinelli and Marwan Kenzari joined as
Nicky and Joe, respectively.
Outside of the Old Guard themselves, the cast also includes Chiwetel Ejiofor as Copley,
who hooks the crew up with missions, and Harry Melling as Merrick, a mysterious and powerful
man who wants to know their secret to immortality.
The first five-issue arc of The Old Guard, subtitled "Opening Fire," was released in
its collected form in August of 2017.
The film is a direct adaptation of this story, which follows the crew as they discover Nile
and try to fight their way out of a trap set up to learn their secrets.
"Opening Fire" represents a complete narrative on its own, but it isn't the end of The Old
Guard comics.
Rucka and Fernandez have planned a trilogy of stories following these characters, and
the second is already making its way out into the world.
The second volume of The Old Guard subtitled "Force Multiplied" and following the continued
adventures of the crew released its first issue in December of 2019.
The Old Guard premieres on Netflix on July 10, 2020.
Thanks for watching!
Click the links in our video to watch more from Netflix Film Club.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get the latest exclusive videos.
Plus hit the bell so you don’t miss a single one.