The Old Guard 2: A Stale Sequel That Fumbles Its Immortal Potential

Release Date: July 2, 2025 (Netflix) Director: Victoria Mahoney Starring: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Uma Thurman, Veronica Ngô, Henry Golding, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Matthias Schoenaerts

It’s been five long years since Charlize Theron’s weary immortal warrior Andy first graced our screens in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s punchy adaptation of Greg Rucka’s graphic novel. That 2020 Netflix hit blended balletic action with poignant musings on eternity, mortality, and found family, earning a devoted fanbase hungry for more. Now, with The Old Guard 2, the bar is set high—but unfortunately, this sequel mostly stumbles over it, delivering a serviceable but uninspired extension of its world that feels more like a placeholder than a bold evolution.

The story picks up shortly after the events of the first film, thrusting Andy and her ragtag band of ageless mercenaries—now including the newly immortal Nile (KiKi Layne)—into a web of ancient rivalries and betrayals among their fellow immortals. As new threats emerge from the shadows of history, the team grapples with shifting alliances, personal reckonings, and the ever-looming question of what it means to live forever when the world keeps changing. Without spoiling the twists, the narrative expands the lore impressively, introducing mythical figures and long-lost comrades that deepen the franchise’s mythological underpinnings. It’s a globe-trotting affair, from misty Vietnamese jungles to sun-baked Moroccan ruins, but the script (again penned by Rucka) often feels labyrinthine, piling on subplots that dilute rather than amplify the emotional core.

Theron remains the film’s anchor, her Andy a storm of quiet fury and vulnerability—especially as the character confronts a vulnerability that’s both literal and metaphorical in this installment. Layne’s Nile, too, steps up as a more confident foil, her wide-eyed wonder from the original giving way to hardened resolve that grounds the ensemble. The returning lovers Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli) provide flashes of tenderness amid the chaos, their banter a welcome reminder of the first film’s heart. But it’s the newcomers who steal scenes: Veronica Ngô delivers a raw, haunting performance as Quỳnh, Andy’s centuries-old lover, whose return injects genuine pathos and regret into the proceedings—making the immortals’ burdens feel achingly real for the first time. Uma Thurman, as the enigmatic antagonist Discord, chews scenery with gleeful menace, her clashes with Theron promising (and occasionally delivering) the kind of high-stakes showdown the title teases. Henry Golding’s Tuah adds a layer of exotic flair, though his arc feels underdeveloped.

Director Victoria Mahoney, stepping in for Prince-Bythewood, brings a slick visual polish to the proceedings—vibrant cinematography and dynamic editing that make the action pop. The fight scenes are a highlight, choreographed with brutal efficiency that showcases the characters’ millennia of combat expertise: think fluid swordplay intertwined with modern firearms, all captured in kinetic long takes that avoid the shaky-cam pitfalls of lesser action flicks. Yet, there’s a frustrating scarcity of them; the runtime drags with filler exposition and meandering downtime, turning what should be a taut 107 minutes into a slog punctuated by bursts of adrenaline.

Where The Old Guard 2 truly falters is in its thematic ambition—or lack thereof. The original film wrestled with the weight of endless life, the ethics of intervention, and the ache of lost connections. Here, those ideas are name-dropped amid bombastic set pieces, but rarely explored with the same introspective bite. Betrayals feel perfunctory, relationships underdeveloped, and the ensemble often sidelined in favor of Theron’s solo brooding. It’s as if the film is so busy setting up a potential third chapter that it forgets to stand on its own—leaving viewers with an incomplete tale that teases more than it satisfies.

Fans of the first will find enough lore drops and familiar faces to warrant a watch, and the strong performances keep it from total irrelevance. But for a sequel that took half a decade to arrive, The Old Guard 2 is a letdown: competent craftsmanship wrapped around a hollow core. It’s immortal in name only—forgettable in execution.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

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