Internet culture in the Digital Age moves at the snap of a finger. Thanks to the social media algorithm, what’s popular today might not be talked about tomorrow. Five years feels like a lifetime. That’s how long it’s been since The Old Guard premiered on Netflix. It’s fitting that a follow-up to a movie about a team of immortals would take its time before hitting the service. Mortals, rejoice. The wait is over. The Old Guard 2 is now available to stream on Netflix.
Charlize Theron returns for the action-packed sequel as Andy, the leader of a team of immortal mercenaries who serve as protectors of the world. The team consists of immortals Nile (KiKi Layne), Joe (Marwan Kenzari), and Nicky (Luca Marinelli), along with a mortal, James Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Speaking of finite creatures, Andy now copes with her mortality, which affects every decision, knowing she can finally die. Andy and her team will be tested with the arrival of Discord (Uma Thurman), the very first immortal with a sinister plan that threatens the universe. To defeat Discord, Andy seeks the help of an old friend, Tuah (Henry Golding), who may hold the secrets of immortality.
Ahead, the trio of Golding, Kenzari, and Ejiofor discuss character development and if some struggled to slip back into their parts. The group debates immortality and the movie scenes they would have loved to witness if they could go anywhere in time.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Digital Trends: This movie is about immortality and living through moments in history. They’ve [the immortals] been around for so long. And I start to think if I were immortal, I could live through movie moments in history. Imagine if I were on the set of Goodfellas watching [Martin] Scorsese do the one-shot, or if I were with Michael Mann watching the diner scene in Heat. For all of you, what is a movie moment you would have loved to see filmed live?
Henry Golding: That is a great question.
Marwan Kenzari: Let’s start with The Goonies. [Pauses]
Can’t go wrong there.
Chiwetel Ejiofor: [Laughs] That was it? No explanation? No furthering. No elaborating. Just The Goonies, right in there.
The whole movie.
Ejiofor: I think I’d love to be around at the end of Do the Right Thing. Spike Lee’s character throws the trash can through the window. It set off, at the time, all of this conversation. All of the dynamics of that film are fascinating. I’d love to have been there and just watch that being filmed and watch Spike in his element in that way. I think that would have been amazing.
Golding: Maybe a short time on Armageddon, with all the history. Oh, no. Sorry, not Armageddon. Apocalypse Now. [Laughs]
Great movie.
Golding: [Laughs] Armageddon’s great. Yeah, up in space with Bruce [Willis]. No, Apocalypse Now. Sorry. It’s in Vietnam, very different movies.
Kenzari: You said Armageddon.
Golding: All right!
Ejiofor: At this point, I think you should just go with Armageddon.
Golding: I just want to be a driller who gets sent to space. [Laughs] The idea of Apocalypse Now being so gonzo in how they filmed it with the craziness that was on set, being lost in that creativeness and world, almost becomes Stockholm Syndrome. You’re living out this reality. That would have been fun.
Ejiofor: Nobody believes you.
Golding: [Laughs] I just want to be on that oil rig.
Ejiofor: Everyone knows that you want to be in Armageddon.
Kenzari: Nothing wrong with that. Armageddon was a great movie, and the fact that a meteorite can hit the Earth…
Golding: Luckily, we got those blue-collar guys ready to go to space.
Teaching oil drillers to be astronauts instead of astronauts to be oil drillers.
Golding: [Laughs] Exactly.
Chiwetel and Marwan, you were both stars in the first movie. I’m curious about returning to characters for a second time. Is it easy to get back into character? Was there anything specific you left out the first time [acting in The Old Guard] that you wanted to implement this time?
Ejiofor: I mean, I do enjoy revisiting characters. Characters, for me, never go away entirely. If I’m reading something and it reminds me of a character that I’ve played, I find myself feeling, chemically, a little bit like that character for a moment, sitting in that space for a second. I feel like all of those characters are kind of in me somewhere. It’s actually kind of nice to be able to re-explore something because you always think, “Oh, I wonder if I’m going to be able to feel how I felt before.”
Then inevitably, you begin the process, and it suddenly happens. You start to feel that chemical shift. I think that’s an enjoyable part of it. I think it does give you the opportunity to add a certain layering to a character, to go a little bit deeper, because you have to consider what’s happened in the interim period to this person. That definitionally informs or changes some of the past of the character as well. I think it’s just a really interesting, creative process.
Kenzari: I’m a big fan of Ricky Gervais. I always hear him say, “Never in character. That’s a guy with a whiteboard standing there and holding a microphone. How can you be in character?” But no, it was not complicated at all. It’s as if we left each other a day before, not three or four years before. That’s how easily we would just slip right back into the way we joke around. Nobody really takes him or herself that seriously. Obviously, that adds to the tone and the energy on set. Nobody has an ego or anything that’s complicated. It was quite easy to start back up.
Henry, you’re joining the team this time. What are you trying to bring with your character, Tuah, to this franchise?
Golding: I think Tuah adds another level of lore with who the Old Guards are. I think he reveals a lot of history and the implications that each character has with each other, but also with the civilizations of the world. He’s been scurrying away in his tomb writing, observing, and following the adventures of this lot. For him to come out and finally be part of it, I think, has great meaning to him. He’s locked himself away for too long, so he’s been yearning for a chance to come back to reality in a weird way.
I think if you imagine a life of eternity on your own, it can be very depressing in a weird way. I think he needs to talk to somebody. He has this amazing group that really welcomes him into something, and they’re working towards a greater good, which he wants to be a part of.
I was going to ask you if you had a “Welcome to the Old Guard” moment, like a rookie going to a veteran team.
Golding: [Laughs] I was discussing this earlier. I was waiting for the initiation process, like five shots and a slap on the bum with a paddle, but it never came. I was hoping for it, but these guys are far too…
Ejiofor: We decided against it in the end. [Laughs]
Kenzari: You did get two takes, though. Two takes, and that was it.
Golding: It was like, “Do the work, Henry.” No, they were so welcoming. Like Marwan was saying, not a single person wasn’t welcoming. It made it so easy to integrate into a group of actors who are just as giving as each other. We’re just able to have fun and play with these layered characters.
How’s your back doing? I believe you threw it out.
Golding: Yeah, I had a little tweak. It happens pretty much in everything. It happened on Snake Eyes. It happened in another film that I did, and in this film. It’s always during the choreography process of revising the movements without the tension of your body being in that moment. It’s never anything like a misstep or a hinge of the hips that is completely wrong. Then, you’re out for two weeks. It’s challenging wearing a brace and trying to do all of this choreography, but we managed it.
The Old Guard 2 is now streaming on Netflix.