Director of The Old Guard, Gina Prince-Bythewood, explains how leaving the Spider-Man spin-off Silver & Black was actually a good move for her. Prince-Bythewood started getting attention as a director when she made her first feature-length film called Love & Basketball two decades ago. In 2017, the director signed on to helm the Silver Sable and Black Cat movie.
Anybody who has been following the development of Silver & Black knows that it has not been smooth sailing for Sony. The film has gone through multiple rewrites and delays and isn’t even called Silver & Black anymore, as the studio decided to give Black Cat and Silver Sable their own solo movies. While the two spin-offs spun around in development hell, Prince-Bythewood decided to helm another comic book movie: The Old Guard.
In a recent interview with Indiewire, Prince-Bythewood explained how stepping away from the Black Cat and Silver Sable movies gave her the opportunity to direct The Old Guard. The director explained that after working on a large-scale superhero movie like Silver & Black for a year and a half, she was able to transfer a lot of that experience over to The Old Guard. Prince-Bythewood also indicated she might have not even gotten a shot at directing The Old Guard if it weren’t for Silver & Black, saying:
“Silver & Black put me in the conversation. I was one of those couple of women people go to for these big films. I knew what kind of movies Skydance make. It was exhilarating and nerve-racking. I knew I loved this project, partly because I could do everything I wanted to do from the other film: an edgy superhero film with two women.”
While some fans may be disappointed that Prince-Bythewood went with The Old Guard over a Spider-Verse movie, the work she put into Silver & Black really did seem to benefit the Netflix film. The Old Guard has generally gotten positive reviews, with the action sequences from Charlize Theron and the way Prince-Bythewood handled the adaption being some of the highlights of the movie. The Old Guard could even get a sequel given the way the movie ended, and since writer Greg Rucka has plans for an Old Guard trilogy.
The Black Cat and Silver Sable solo movies still seem to be stuck in development, but making The Old Guard has no doubt been a good move for Prince-Bythewood career. The first solo movie in Sony Picture’s Universe of Marvel Characters, Venom, got mixed reviews, and fans are still waiting to see how the likes of Morbius and Venom: Let There Be Carnage will pan out. The Old Guard was by no means a guaranteed success either, but the risk ended up paying off since Prince-Bythewood has now established herself as an action director.
