5 major differences between 'The Old Guard' movie and comics

Clearly done to raise the stakes in the movie (and going forward with possible sequels), Andy loses her immortality by the end of "The Old Guard." It's something she says has happened with at least one other immortal in the past where their power to endlessly heal simply stops working.

After Andy gets cut with a knife and is unable to heal herself, she realizes she's become mortal. Later in the movie, she speculates that she lost her immortality when Nile, the group's new member, became immortal.

But in the comic (up to #4 of "Force Multiplied), Andy is still immortal. That certainly could change in the pages of #5, but it makes sense to get the star to lose her power. It's much more exciting to think of a potential sequel where Andy's next battle could be her last.

The immortal that Andy can't get out of her head in the movie is Quynh (Van Veronica Ngo). The two were inseparable around the 14th century until they were thought to be witches and captured. Following a string of deaths they recover from, Quynh is finally placed into an iron maiden and thrown into the sea. Because she's immortal, she continuously drowns and comes back to life for hundreds of years.

In the comic, Quynh is named Noriko and continuously drowns after being thrown from a ship in the middle of a storm. Actress Veronica Ngo was behind the character's name change, according to the screenwriter.

"When Veronica was cast, she said I'm not Japanese, I'm Vietnamese," Rucka told Polygon. "[Director Gina Prince-Bythewood] reached out to me and said 'Can we accommodate that?' and I was like, 'Absolutely.' [...] Noriko becomes Quynh, Quynh is now Vietnamese. It really was as simple as wanting to honor that, and be respectful of that."

In the comics, Noriko returns as the villain in "The Old Guard: Force Multiplied" and that's what will likely happen if there's a sequel to Netflix's movie. The final scene reveals Quynh has escaped from the iron maiden and has tracked down Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) in Paris after he was exiled from Andy's group.

Steve Merrick (Harry Melling) isn't much of an imposing figure in the movie. He's a wimpy-looking pharma billionaire obsessed with Andy and her team's immortality and wants them captured so he can experiment on them and cash in. He's often seen cowering behind big bodyguards.

But in the comics, he can take care of himself. He's a beefed-up and tattooed goon who likes to do pushups in the middle of meetings. And when he first meets Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli), he sadistically stabs them, knowing they won't die.

Nile (KiKi Layne) and Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor) both get more backstory in the movie.

In the comics, Nile is simply a tool to help the reader understand the world they're entering of Andy and her immortal team. In the movie, her storyline is beefed up with having to stay away from her family after she's told they won't understand her new life. The movie also added that great airplane fight with Andy.

Copley also gets more backstory. In the comics, he's simply a guy doing a job. In the movie, he's motivated to learn more about Andy and her team after he lost his wife to cancer. Also, in the comics, the character is white while in the movie, he's played by Ejiofor, a Black British actor.

The comics are filled with flashbacks Andy has of her past.

One in "Force Multiplied" focused on Andy's first-ever death. After a gruesome battle, the leader of her tribe and her mentor orders Andy to be killed, intimidated by her fighting prowess and strength. After Andy survives and becomes immortal, she's worshipped as a god (Andy even says a throwaway line about being worshipped as a god in the movie).

But one of her biggest character arcs isn't touched on in the movie. In the comics, Andy has a romantic relationship with a Black West Indian freed slave named Achilles. Part of "Opening Fire" (the full collection of the first series in a single book), Achilles was on a plantation in Virginia but during the American Revolution, he fought for the British in exchange for freedom. He meets Andy after the war while she was a bounty hunter. The two become outlaws and lovers and she stays with him until he grows old. She leaves him to keep her immortality a secret.

Now that's a flashback that should be highlighted if a sequel comes along.