This story will contain mild spoilers for the original Kingsman: The Secret Service movie. So stop reading now if you haven't yet seen that film.
The cat, officially, is out of the bag... and it's wearing an eye patch! After months of loose speculation about Colin Firth's involvement in Matthew Vaughn's sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, we now know that Harry Hart, aka Galahad, will be back in action. And why is that weird? Because Harry was shot in the face, point blank, by the villainous Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson) in the first movie.
This opens the door to a wealth of possibilities, all of which I believe could be on the table for Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Colin Firth might not be playing Harry at all, but rather a twin, or a distant relative. There's the easier, more soap-opera-esque plot twist that Harry somehow faked his death, though explaining that one would be very difficult (though not impossible in the exaggerated world of the Kingsman spies). To better understand how Harry might be resurrected, we have to revisit how he died.
Harry's murder took place after the celebrated church shootout, where a mind-controlled version of the lethal agent assassinated an ensemble of equally mind-controlled -- but innocent -- people. Harry confronts Valentine after the fight, but gets a bullet in the face for his troubles. "Is he dead?" Valentine actually asks after pulling the trigger, prompting his lethal sidekick, Gazelle (Sofia Boutella) to reply, "That tends to happen when you shoot someone in the head."
Only, he isn't dead. Or Matthew Vaughn is playing some mind games of his own on us. Don't remember how it played out? Watch it again:
The photo below shows us Colin Firth at the very end of the latest Kingsman: The Golden Circle trailer, and clearly this has not been a devious tactic by the Kingsman, to hide Harry out until the best time to unveil him. How can we tell? Because Harry's trainee, Eggsy (Taron Egerton), and his former colleague Merlin (Mark Strong) seem genuinely stunned to see their "dead" friend on whatever screen they're looking at.
We can't make out a ton about Harry's return, outside of the fact that he doesn't look like a proper Kingsman. This man, with his tussled hair and half-shaven face, needs an immediate trip to the Kingsman tailor shop to pick up a proper suit... though by the looks of the latest trailer, that shop is going to disappear. But what do we see in the background of this image? Harry is in a sterile environment, with a desk (and a massive magnifying glass) and ... butterflies on the wall? Where is Harry hiding? Is this Harry at all?
Knowing the way the Kingsman universe operates, I'm willing to bet that Matthew Vaughn has a curveball in his arsenal, and Colin Firth is NOT playing the Harry Hart we know from the original movie. Maybe Harry trained his twin in case he should be killed off? Or maybe there's a robotic clone being kept somewhere, in case the Kingsmen need him?
All answers will be revealed when Kingsman: The Golden Circle opens in theaters on September 22. And go here for more information on all 2017 Movie Release Dates.
