By: John M Jerva
Last week, we got to see the first official images from the upcoming Netflix original The Old Guard which is based on the graphic novels created by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez. Starring Charlize Theron who plays Andy, AKA Andromache the Scythian, the film tells the story of an immortal warrior who leads a secret and elite unit of other immortals in a never ending war to save the world.
The film is set to hit the streaming service this July and Entertainment Weekly dropped more info and images from the film which “follows this small team of immortals as they evolve and age (and age and age) through history, impervious to injury or illness. They’ve spent the last few centuries brushing up on their battle skills, and their millennia-old leader is Theron’s Andy, a.k.a. Andromache the Scythian, an ancient warrior who can be as deadly with a handgun as she is with her signature ax.”
Now in the 21st century, Andy and her crew must still hide in the shadows but it’s harder now then it was throughout the years and an unknown enemy has targeted them. To complicate things, the team just deal with a new immortal in former Marine Nile played by KiKi Lane who must learn how to adapt and embrace this newly found power.
To go along with the new pics, Theron also spoke to EW about playing Andy and wielding her beast of a battle axe in the film.
I had the most incredible shoulders after. I’ve never had to do anything like that. You have to learn to fight with that ginormous thing in a way where you don’t kill the person that you’re fighting with.”
Theron also spoke about how the film’s ambitious action sequences took its toll on her and was the hardest thing she has ever done. “I definitely cried quite a bit,” Theron said. “Everybody kept saying, ‘This is probably serious,’ and I was like, ‘We can’t talk about that right now. We just have to keep going because what are we going to do? We have three more weeks to shoot. We’ve got to get through it.”
Lane also was interviewed and spoke about the importance of having not one but two strong female characters leading an action film.
“These types of films — especially action films of this size — usually follow a male character, and there are female characters, but they’re just kind of orbiting around whatever his story is,” Layne said. “This film [has] the ability to carry two very strong female stories.”
The Old Guard was helmed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and the director added: “They are warriors. [I wanted] to be able to reframe what it means to be a female with this film and make that a normal thing: our toughness and badassness and courage. To normalize that was really important to me.”
Fight coordinator Daniel Hernandez and stunt coordinator Brycen Counts were responsible for all the incredible action that we will see and Counts offered more on how they approached the fighting styles.
“We looked at all kinds of different styles — styles that came from the Middle East, styles that came from Mongolia. I mean, just anything ancient we could come up with, and also new tactics as well.”
It looks like The Old Guard will continue Netflix’s recent success with action films after the Chris Hemsworth vehicle Extraction made a huge impact since it debuted last month. The streaming giant is taking no prisoners in the streaming wars as new services pop up almost daily to give the original platform a run for its money.
I’m certainly eagerly awaiting to see first footage from this one and here’s hoping that the film can deliver on its promise of having epic action. After all, it has Charlize Theron wielding a double handed battle axe so that right there is worth the price of admission alone.
We wait for a trailer but something tells me that we will have one soon enough as the film will hit on July 10th so keep it locked and loaded right here for more to come!
ACTION-FLIX 
