Images: Charlize Theron is a 6000 year old warrior in The Old Guard

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Vanity Fair got their hands on an interesting batch of images that offer the first look at the upcoming Netflix release THE OLD GUARD, which stars Charlize Theron as a 6000 year old warrior. A handful of those images have been shared here in this article. 

Here's the background on Theron's character: 

Her name is Andromache of Scythia. She was born thousands of years ago, and has died hundreds of times — only to resurrect and fight again and again and again. She hides from the world but fearlessly confronts its darker corners, weaving in and out of history and mythology. In 425 B.C., she inspired the hero from one of Euripides’s only surviving plays; in the 1860s she was a soldier for the Union in the Civil War, and she is still picking up the club, the sword, the gun for every good fight she can find. Her name literally means “man-fighter” or “battler of men.” But she goes by “Andy” now.

Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood from a screenplay by Greg Rucka, who also created (with artist Leandro Fernandez) the graphic novel series the film is based on, THE OLD GUARD finds 

Andromache in the present day. She’s still living off the grid and leading a tactical vigilante team of other immortals that takes out human traffickers, terrorists, and anyone else who preys on the vulnerable and the innocent. But she’s tired. Doubtful. Somewhat hopeless. After all these centuries, the world just seems to be becoming more cruel and agonizing, not less so.

Andy is reenergized when a new immortal, KiKi Layne as U.S. Marine Nile Freeman, turns up. Nile finds out she's immortal after being killed in action during a mission in the Middle East.

Also on Andy's team of vigilantes are Matthias Schoenaerts as a French soldier who fought alongside Napoleon, and Luca Marinelli and Marwan Kenzari as former enemies who fought against each other in the Crusades and are now in a relationship. Chiwetel Ejiofor is in the cast as a CIA operative who has figured out the immortals' identities, and Harry Melling as a pharma executive who wants to capture the immortals and experiment on them.

Although this is a comic book adaptation with superhuman characters, Prince-Bythewood said she wanted to keep the film grounded in reality, drawing inspiration from Kathryn Bigelow's ZERO DARK THIRTY and Tony Scott's MAN ON FIRE.

I never wanted any moment to take an audience out of the fact that these could be real people. This is somebody that can get stabbed and walk away, but it’s going to hurt."

THE OLD GUARD will be available for viewing through the Netflix streaming service as of July 10th, and I'm going to be watching this one for sure.