Ah, The Old Guard. I was entranced by this Netflix masterpiece from the moment I laid eyes on it – and I was relieved I didn’t watch it right when it came out in 2020. Five years later, and we’re still waiting on a sequel. But until then, we can enjoy the comics the movie was based upon! I only read the first volume, Opening Fire, so as not to spoil myself for future films. And while the art style and characterizations gave me much to love, a few changes from book to movie – some minor, some major – piqued my interest.
1. Copley’s wife
In the movie, just like the comic, James Copley is an informant who offers the team certain missions in exchange for a payout. He works with Merrick to try and discover the secret to their immortality, but the movie has one small difference: he used to have a wife who has since passed away.
This detail adds a surprising amount of depth to his character. Now, his motivations to work with Merrick and uncover eternal life (or at least a damn good medicine) have greater weight. It also makes his ultimate decision to turn on Merrick and help save the team mean more. After all, Copley knows what it’s like to lose a loved one, but he’s not willing to let anyone else suffer for the chance of supernatural knowledge.
2. Nile’s return
In the comic, when Andy speaks with Nile about the latter’s family, she explains to the younger woman that she can’t ever return to them. They’ll get curious about her immortality then demand answers she can’t give, souring all of Nile’s good memories. Nile takes this in stride, working alongside the team and earning her place among them.
Things are different in the movie, however. While Andy still warns Nile against going back to her family, she gives Nile the chance to break away. She presses a gun into her hand and tells her to spend as long as she can with her family. Conflicted, Nile leaves before Andy and Booker go on their rescue mission to save Nicky and Joe. But when she realizes that the gun Andy gave her – the one Booker gave her – is empty, she realizes what Booker has done. Nile makes the choice to return to Andy and help however she can, giving her a hefty dose of agency.
In the source material, Nile is still the one to first recognize Booker’s betrayal, but it comes about differently. Booker searches online to deduce where Joe and Nicky are being held, and Andy tells Nile that she doesn’t understand technology and leaves it to Booker. Nile whispers to Andy that the Internet doesn’t work like that – you can’t use a laptop in a cave – but it’s too late, and the women are shot down by Booker.
This brings us into our next point…
3. Booker’s son
At this point in the story, both in comic and movie, Booker reveals to Andy why he betrayed everyone. If Merrick was looking for their immortality, then maybe he’d find a way to “make it stop.” Booker is the youngest of the team, coming in at only 200 years old. He’s not old enough, like Andy, to forget about his family, and he doesn’t have someone who’s been with him since the start, like Nicky and Joe. All he has is memories of his youngest son, who died angry at him.
In both formats, Booker’s son succumbed to cancer, angry at his father for not being able to help him despite Booker’s own immortality. The comic depicts him as a frail old man, shouting and throwing things at Booker. In the movie, however, his son is much younger, making his frustration ring more true. While the image of an old man shouting at his unaging father is a strong one, having Booker’s son be so much younger was a good choice. The younger he is, the more sense it would make for him to lash out at his father for something he can’t control.
4. Noriko/Quynh
I’ve only read the first volume of these comics, so I’m sure this isn’t the last I’ve seen of Noriko. However, I was surprised by how different her story is in the book – not to mention how much shorter.
In the movie, Quynh (Noriko’s counterpart, with the actress being Vietnamese rather than Japanese like Noriko) is Andy’s greatest backstory. They lost Lykon together, watching as he died for good, then went on to stay by each other’s side. They were arrested when they were accused of being witches, unable to die via hanging. Instead of trying repeated methods of execution, their captors trapped Quynh in a metal case and threw her into the ocean, forced to drown repeatedly for eternity.
Nile has dreams about Quynh, prompting Andy to tell her the whole story. Along with Andy’s guilt and hidden pain, there’s also the hint of something romantic in their past relationship. Because of this, I didn’t expect Andy’s comic backstory to have so many changes.
Noriko gets a whole page to herself, but her tale isn’t nearly as complicated as the movie. She fought with Andy for years, then went overboard and never resurfaced from the ocean. Andy simply assumed that was her ultimate death.
The following page of the comic focuses on Lykon, giving him more detail and a more personal connection to Andy than Noriko. A couple chapters later, we learn of Andy’s most central past relationship: her romance with a gunslinger named Achilles. Andy spent years by his side, building a life with him, until he finally told her to leave before people started asking questions. He never once questioned her inability to age, nor begrudged her it.
5. The loss of immortality
And now we come to the biggest book-to-movie change, the one that caught me the most off-guard. I was waiting for this moment throughout the comic’s climax, unsure when it would appear. And then it never did. I assume this plot point will come up in later volumes, but I’ll wait for the next movie before I read more of the series.
In the movie, when Andy is wounded before the final battle, she realizes she didn’t automatically heal. She’s reached the end of her immortality, just like Lykon, but she isn’t dead yet. Knowing this, she still embarks on her mission to rescue Joe and Nicky, taking the ultimate risk. Despite surviving, the following events of the mission aren’t done taking their toll on her. Following Booker’s betrayal, the team plans for his punishment. Their decision is a harsh one: he will be alone for a hundred years, and only then will his fellow immortals return for him.
While this decree hits him hard in the comic, it’s even more devastating for Andy in the movie. Having lost her immortality, she knows this means she will never see Booker again. Their relationship in both media is strong and complex, but it’s only in the movie that Andy embraces Booker before walking away.
With the plot remaining largely unchanged from book to movie, the character alterations caught my interest the most. Nile is just as endearing in both, but her choice to return to Andy gives her more agency than the comic. I’m glad the movie scratched out Andy’s hundreds of sexual conquests, but her relationship with Booker was surprisingly poignant. The movie gives them a somewhat softer dynamic, whereas the comic leans into their friendship with all the depth and nuance it deserves. Nicky and Joe held the fewest changes: they still have their wonderfully romantic van scene and show no mercy to anyone who harms their beloved.
It’s been five years since The Old Guard hit Netflix, and we still might not see its sequel in 2025. But I’m willing to wait. Charlize Theron is a powerhouse, and I’d watch anything with her in it – but this is something special. When the next movie comes out, let’s see how many changes we’ll have from book two!
