Charlize Theron insists “The Old Guard 2” will be released “soon.”
The Oscar winner explains that the action sequel, which wrapped shooting about two years ago, has faced a lengthy delay due in part to a change in Netflix leadership. “Netflix went through quite a changeover,” Theron told me at her Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project Block Party on Saturday. “We got kind of stuck in that and our post-production shut down, I think, five weeks into it.”
The actors and writers strikes are also said to have kept the film from being on schedule. Even so, Theron never worried that the movie could be shelved.
“They were going through a lot of changes, and I totally understand it,” she said. “We finally picked it back up and I’m really excited about it.”
The first “Old Guard” was released in 2020, with the streamer announcing that it reached 72 million households in its first four weeks. An adaptation of screenwriter Greg Rucka’s comic book of the same name and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, the movie stars Theron as Andy, the leader of a small army of superhero-esque immortals (Kiki Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli), whose centuries-old secret existence is threatened by a villainous pharmaceutical titan who wants to replicate their DNA.
The second installment was directed by Victoria Mahoney with Uma Thurman and Henry Golding joining returning cast members Theron, Layne, Schoenaerts, Kenzari, Luca Marinelli, Veronica Ngo and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
“It’s really good,” Theron said. “It’s a really important film to us. I only wanted to do it if we could make it amazing. I really love this movie.”
In May 2023, “Old Guard” producer Marc Evans teased the franchise could become a trilogy. “There’s an ending to No. 2 that kind of demands a No. 3, which makes me very happy,” he told Variety.
Meanwhile, Theron also has dancing on the brain. She recently opened The Six Compound dance studio in Burbank.
“I’m on the dance circuit with my kids,” she said. “It felt like something that I could give back. It’s important for young people to have space where they can dream and be out of what their real world may be. It’s escapism. We want to be more all-inclusive and think outside of the box of what it really truly means to be a dancer.”
