Warning: SPOILERS for The Old Guard.
Netflix's The Old Guard featured several significant changes in its transition from page to screen. Created Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernández, the story began as a comic book series. Released in 2017, The Old Guard: Opening Fire was published by Image Comics and ran for five issues. Well-received by critics and comic book fans alike, Rucka and Fernández have since produced a follow-up, The Old Guard: Force Multiplied. That particular five-issue run concluded in mid-July 2020. A third and final installment - The Old Guard: Fade Away - has already been confirmed.
The Old Guard centered on a group of immortals. Led by Charlize Theron's Andromache of Scythia, aka Andy, the group is revealed to have spent centuries fighting for humanity. After countless wars, the film picked up in the present day with the eclectic group working as mercenaries. Despite Andy's rule against working for the same client too often, they accepted a mission to rescue a group of abducted children. Unfortunately, the mission was revealed to be a trap that exposes their abilities to Steven Merrick (Harry Melling), a ruthless businessman who sought to exploit them for financial gain. The group's mission to avoid capture was further complicated by a betrayal by one of their own and the emergence of a new immortal: Nile Freeman (KiKi Layne).
The Old Guard was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, who worked from a script written by Rucka himself. As a result, the film was an extremely faithful adaptation of the source material, so much so that large portions of the comic book dialogue made it onto the screen verbatim. The Old Guard was not without its differences, however. Many of them were extremely minor - such as Merrick being nowhere near the muscle-bound character he is on the page, additional action scenes, and the healing factor working differently. Others, meanwhile, were quite substantial and will likely impact the story going forward.
Andy Loses Her Immortality
The stakes were raised dramatically in The Old Guard's third act when Andy suddenly lost her immortality. The development served a number of functions. Principally, it added even more tension in the film's final battle - with the other immortals having to actively protect their leader from gunfire while also taking out enemy soldiers. It also helped to remind Andy just how fragile and precious life actually is. Finally, it directly led to Andy being reminded that humanity wasn't all bad. This was most notably depicted in her interaction with a kindly stranger, who helped patch up a stab wound Andy had suffered. However, the arc is entirely original to the movie. In both volumes of the comic book series that have already been released, Andy's immortality has remained firmly intact.
Joe's Declaration of Love to Nicky
During the film, Joe is taunted by one of Merrick's about whether Nicky is his boyfriend. In response, Joe responded that "boyfriend" is nowhere near a sufficient enough description of what Nicky is to him. The moment has proven to be one of The Old Guard's most popular and celebrated. It was also one that Rucka himself insisted had to be featured in the film, with it even stipulated as such in his contract. As it turned out, however, Joe's speech was even more extensive on the page - and featured several more poetic comparisons, including how Nicky's "very thoughts make music of the mundane". As such, any fans of the scene who are subsequently turned on to the source material will be pleasantly surprised.
James Copley's Backstory and Motivations
Played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, the character of James Copley was much more fleshed out on-screen. In the original comics, the former CIA agent is driven by the no-doubt considerable income afforded him by working for Merrick. In the movie, however, his motivations come from a much more understandable and sympathetic place. He mentions early in the film that his wife ed away from ALS. In the wake of that tragedy, Copley committed himself to spare others from similar fates and the kind of grief he went through.
In both iterations, he ultimately sees the error of his ways and betrays Merrick. The change to his backstory, though, serves to also deepen that decision. Rather than it just being his distaste for Merrick's methods, greed, and blatant sadism, the film's version Copley was driven to aid the immortals in order to better honor his wife's memory. What happens next is also a change from the comics. On the page, Copley was showed mercy and allowed to live, and subsequently crossed paths with the heroes again. In the movie, however, Andy actively recruited him - so that he may use his connections to cover the immortals' tracks in the future. As such, he will likely be a more central figure going forward. Nile was similarly more fleshed out, with an element of grief also added into her family history and fuelling some of her decisions.
Noriko Becomes Quynh
Another of The Old Guard's most substantial changes are centered on the character of Quynh (Veronica Ngo). On the page, she is actually named Noriko and of Japanese descent. On the screen, the character was made Vietnamese and her name was altered accordingly. The changes actually came about because of Ngo herself. In an interview with Polygon, Rucka revealed that when Ngo was officially cast, she said, "I'm Vietnamese, not Japanese". Prince-Bythewood then reached out to him and asked if that could be accommodated. Rucka was happy to honor and respect that wish. As such, The Old Guard proved even more dedicated to representation, side-stepping Hollywood's usual trend of mixing and matching Asian cultures.
Elements of the character's tortured, watery fate is also changed from page to screen. As Noriko, she is merely washed overboard by a wave during a particularly strong storm. As Quynh, her being subjected to centuries of drowning is more a conscious choice that stemmed from the cruelty and ignorance of humanity. After she and Andy are captured during witch trials in England, they are both executed in a variety of ways. When each of the methods of execution inevitably fails to stick, she is locked inside an iron maiden and deliberately cast into the sea. According to Rucka in the same interview, the change was partially to avoid the costly measure of bringing to life such a storm.
The choice was solidified by Prince-Bythewood's suggested idea to include the iron maiden imagery. The moment would now tie both narratively and tonally to Quynh's return in the film's pre-credits scene - which was also brought forward compared to the comic book's timeline. Another subtle change to the comic's timeline came with Andy stating that she met Quynh before she met Lykon, when it was the other way around on the page.
The Ripple Effect of the Immortals' Heroism
Another turning point came in The Old Guard's third act when Copley revealed the depth of his research into the immortals. While the group always tried to use their abilities for good, they had never been privy to the larger pattern that was being formed by their deeds. From everything that Copley had amassed, however, they learned that for every person they'd saved there had been a ripple effect - one that had greatly benefitted humanity as a whole. This would either come in the form of medical discoveries, positive technological advancements, or the avoidance of a major disaster.
The news spurred Nile to let go of her apprehension and the team officially by the film's end. Furthermore, it reignited Andy's faith and restored her sense of purpose. While the revelation does occur in the comic book series, it doesn't come until the second volume rather than the volume on which the film is mostly based. As a result, along with the return of Quynh, viewers are dealing with a much more expedited timeline in Rucka's planned trilogy of films. That decision will likely produce a ripple effect of its own - with further changes, detours, and expansions to the story developing exponentially in future The Old Guard installments.
