The Old Guard spoilers follow.
The Old Guard writer Greg Rucka has explained a couple of changes to Quynh's character from the original source material.
In the comic book, Quynh's character is named Noriko and is Japanese. And while Quynh in the Netflix movie was deliberately drowned after being locked in an iron coffin, the comic explained that Noriko was thrown overboard during a storm.
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Veronica Ngo – known for her leading role in action movie Furie – plays Quynh in the film, and she was the one who suggested the change of name and ethnicity.
Rucka told Polygon: "When Veronica was cast, she said, 'I'm not Japanese, I'm Vietnamese'. [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 honour that and be respectful of that. There was no other clever or nefarious, 'Oh, maybe there will be a Noriko in the next one'."
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As for Quynh's death, the budget was a factor behind the change.
"It was pointed out to me, at one point, that should we want to do the sea sequence properly, we were talking in the neighbourhood of millions of dollars just for that alone," Rucka explained.
"And Netflix could go and make one or two really good movies with that money, and this would be a minute and a half on screen, so perhaps we could come up with something else?"
On the movie's scene, Rucka added: "[It's a sequence that] highlighted just how awful people can be. In fact, it is one of the most horrible sadistic things I can imagine doing to anybody."
The Old Guard is available to watch now on Netflix.
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