Victoria Mahoney, the director of The Old Guard 2explained the cliffhanger ending of the feature in a new interview. The recently released Charlize Theron-led movie is the sequel to 2020’s The Old Guard. Both movies are adaptations of the comic book series created by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernández for Image Comics. Rucka also penned the screenplay of the first movie and co-wrote the sequel.

Victoria Mahoney on why a cliffhanger ending was chosen for The Old Guard 2

Mahoney disclosed in a new interview with The Direct that she gave The Old Guard 2 a cliffhanger ending because she and her collaborators wanted the audience to experience “wonderment and hope and joy” after watching the movie. Toward the end of The Old Guard 2, Matthias Schoenaerts’ Booker is killed, and Uma Thurman’s Discord escapes after capturing the team members of Charlize Theron’s Andromache “Andy” of Scythia. However, before the credits start rolling, Andy and Veronica Ngô’s Quynh reconcile and agree to rescue the former’s friends.

“There were so many discussions about how we would leave audiences,” Mahoney recalled. “And what the emotion, the strongest emotion to leave them with [was]. And to some degree, that ending brings about wonderment and hope and joy,” she added.

Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) directed the first feature. Mahoney took over the directorial duties for the sequel. According to her, even though the three emotions mentioned above aren’t the only “factors important to an ending, or this ending,” they allow, in different ratios, “for something that inspires people in a way that I believe everyone benefits from at the moment.” She clarified that she didn’t “want to see a dark, gut-wrenching ending right now in a movie like this.”

Mahoney indicated that she wanted to capture the importance of that moment between the two characters. She added, “I enjoyed how those two actors were in that scene, and I enjoy how it’s cut together, and I enjoy when I watch it.”

The Old Guard 2 is available for streaming on Netflix.

Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on SuperHeroHype.