The Old Guard 2 has finally arrived on Netflix, and its 2020 predecessor The Old Guard is gaining a surge of new viewership as a byproduct of the sequel’s release. Per Netflix Tudum, The Old Guard re-entered Netflix’s Top 10 most streamed movies in late June ahead of The Old Guard 2‘s release. Of course, it should come as no surprise that The Old Guard is seeing a major viewership boost in the wake of its sequel’s debut.
Based upon Greg Rucka’s graphic novel series, The Old Guard (which Rucka as wrote the screenplay for) focuses upon a group of immortals led by Andy (Charlize Theron) who form themselves into a team of mercenaries for hire over the ages. When the group’s newest client James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) uncovers the group’s healing powers and invulnerability, they find themselves targeted by pharmaceutical executive Steven Merrick (Harry Melling), who is determined to capture the immortal mercenaries in order to replicate their power.
The Old Guard 2 sees Andy – who lost her immortality in the previous movie – continuing to lead her team on mercenary missions. The group soon finds themselves opposed by one of their old immortal friends, Quynh (Veronica Ngo), who was left locked in an iron maiden at the bottom of the ocean for centuries, her immortality leaving her to horribly drown over and over. Freed from her aquatic imprisonment by the sinister Discord (Uma Thurman), Quynh returns to seek revenge on her old friends for being left to such an unspeakable fate for hundreds of years.
The Old Guard debuted on Netflix on July 10th, 2020, right when the world was still in the midst of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Old Guard drew a largely positive reception and became an immediate streaming hit for Netflix. For The Old Guard 2, Victoria Mahoney stepped into the director’s chair from the previous film’s director Gina Prince-Bythewood, with Rucka also returning to co-write the sequel with Sarah L. Walker.
While The Old Guard enjoyed a generally positive reception, the same has unfortunately not been the case for The Old Guard 2, at least not right out of the gate. While the Netflix comic book movie holds an 80% rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, The Old Guard 2‘s rating is considerably lower at 25%. While that’s an unfortunate downturn, the direct nature of streaming releases to their at-home audiences means that they are seldom impacted all that badly by negative reviews, especially in the case of sequels to popular hits like The Old Guard.
While the numbers aren’t in yet for The Old Guard 2‘s performance on Netflix, The Old Guard‘s resurgence in the vicinity of its sequel’s release indicates that it has a good chance at having a comparable performance on Netflix. The Old Guard being thrown back into Netflix’s immediate spotlight thanks to The Old Guard 2 also bodes well for a potential The Old Guard 3, should the sequel prove to be a similarly sizeable streaming hit on Netflix as its predecessor.
The Old Guard and The Old Guard 2 are both available to stream on Netflix.
