Spy franchises are a dime a dozen. There are the top dogs in James Bond and the Mission: Impossible series. There are the ones that poke their heads up every couple of years, like the Bourne series. But few of them are anything like the Kingsman series that was created by graphic artist Mark Millar (who wrote the comic The Secret Service) and Layer Cake director Matthew Vaughn.
Vaughn started working early on with Guy Ritchie, producing both Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels before beginning to direct his own films. He helmed a killer X-Men movie, produced a brilliant fantasy epic in Stardust, and has been busy lately producing Rocketman for his frequent collaborator, Taron Egerton.
At the same time, Matthew Vaughn has been dedicated to developing his Kingsman series, which has two chapters so far and will likely cap off its trilogy with \ between Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and Harry (Colin Firth). Before that happens, Vaughn is making a Kingsmen prequel set during World War I, and while appearing on the ReelBlend podcast, Vaughn talked about how different this new one will be from The Secret Service and The Golden Circle. Vaughn said:
When we came up with Kingsman sitting in that pub with Mark Miller seven years ago, it was very much a thing of two fanboys getting drunk, lamenting about what's happened to spy movies. And then the more I'd gotten involved in it, the more I just felt … was I planning a universe? No, but a universe sort of [developed]. It's been like the Big Bang, that all these other ideas are coming. I don’t know where they come from, but I'm excited. Because the prequel is so different. For me, it was a whole new muscle to go off and develop, and I hope the public likes it. I don't know. I mean, I'm very proud of it already. But it’s very, very different. So some people will -- the people who hated Kingsman would probably love it, and all the people who love Kingsman might go, ‘What the hell has he gone and done?’ But hopefully people will like it. … It's different in every which way but loose, apart from an ape.
The Kingsmen movies amplify what is expected from a James Bond movie, ratcheting up the sexual innuendos, the high-tech weaponry, and the comical villains. They do it all with a tongue planted firmly in a cheek, to the point where The Golden Circle concluded with robotic dogs programmed to kill Elton John. Yeah, it got kind of nuts.
So far, we know that the Kingsman prequel stars Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes as early versions of the legendary spies. They will be joined by an incredible ensemble, from Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Gemma Arterton to Charles Dance, Daniel Bruhl, Matthew Goode and Djimon Hounsou (to name just a few).
Because it’s set during World War I, that automatically makes this movie different from the two existing Kingsmen movies. When we pushed him for more details, he just emphasized how “different” this is going to be.
From there, Matthew Vaughn expects to head back to his existing Kingsmen timeline with Taron Egerton and Colin Firth, because as he tells CinemaBlend:
The thing about Kingsman, it's like any film. It always comes down to heart and the relationship between two people. Eggsy and Harry’s relationship needs to be concluded. It’s been set up for… the end of the last one was, you know, they've been sort of torn apart due to marriage. And now it’s their last hurrah together and then we'll see what happens.
That’s a great tease. You can listen to our entire conversation with Matthew Vaughn about Rocketman, the X-Men, the Kingsmen franchise, and more on the latest ReelBlend episode:
Rocketman is in theaters as we speak, while Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman prequel is expected to reach multiplexes on February 14.
