1st Look: Charlize Theron in ‘The Old Guard’

Led by a warrior named Andy (CharlizeTheron),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 andNile (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 that living forever is harder than it looks.

Academy Award winner Charlize Theron produces and stars as Andy — or Andromache the Scythian — a warrior born in an age that predates almost all historical records whose experience in combat rivals no other.  Together with Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), Nicky (Luca Marinelli), and the newest immortal, Nile (KiKi Layne), Andy uses her gift to protect mankind — leading the team on a covert, darkly altruistic path through the ages, balancing harm with good, and taking a life when necessary in order to save thousands of others. Their secret is exposed when an operation brought to them by an ex-CIA operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor) backfires,  threatening their existence.   

With a screenplay written by Eisner-winning comic book writer Greg Rucka, and adapted from his own accalimed 2017 graphic novel series, The Old Guard focuses not on the obvious tropes of heroes fighting for right, but instead turns the conceit of immortality on its head and focuses on the tragedy of living forever. It’s also a superhero story that places the work of saving mankind firmly in the hands of its two lead female protagonists.

“?This is a story with mythological elements and themes of relationships, family, and love that were very appealing to me,” says Prince-Bythewood. “But at its core, the fact that I got to put two badass women on screen was everything. The script came to me at a time when I had been looking to move into a bigger sandbox and it ended up presenting me with the opportunity to do exactly what I wanted: to put female heroes into the world, one of whom is a young black woman.”  

Watching the trailer, I couldn’t help making the comparison between Charlize Theron’s portrayal of Andy and her role as Furiosa in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. There’s a lot of Furiosa in Andy, and that leads me to suspect that there’s a lot of Charlize Theron in both of them.

The Old Guard stars Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Marwan  Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Harry Melling,  Van Veronica Ngo, Matthias Schoenaerts,  and Chiwetel Ejiofor, and becomes available on Netflix everywhere on the planet on July 10, 2020.

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Gene Turnbow

President of Krypton Media Group, Inc., radio personality and station manager of SCIFI.radio. Part writer, part animator, part musician, part illustrator, part programmer, part entrepreneur – all geek.