20th Century Studios has released a new trailer for The King’s Man, the Kingsman origin story prequel movIe. The film traces the origins of the spy franchise that director Matthew Vaughn brought to life in 2014’s Kingsman: The Secret Service and 2017’s sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The official logline teases that “a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions,” which in turn spurs the creation of Kingsman. This includes Rasputin, as played by Rhys Ifans, and a host of other characters we'll no doubt meet later.
Disney-owned 20th Century Studios unveiled a third and (possibly) final trailer for The King's Man, the period prequel to the Kingsman series, which serves as an origin story for the titular fictitious intelligence agency, Kingsman, that has featured in the two previous films. The King's Man trailer posits World War I as a conspiracy devised by an evil circle of influential men that's merely in it for the financial gain. Enter the “first independent intelligence agency”, led by the Duke of Oxford (Ralph Fiennes, from Schindler's List).
The King's Man is a prequel that goes back to the origins of the secret spy organisation and, while it is the third movie in the Kingsman franchise, it's not Kingsman 3, as it won't feature the characters from the previous movies.
In addition to Fiennes, Arterton, Dickinson, Hounsou, Ifans, Hollander, and Yusupov, The King's Man also stars Matthew Goode (A Discovery of Witches), Charles Dance (Game of Thrones), Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass), Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones), Joel Basman (The Awakening of Motti Wolkenbruch), Alison Steadman (Gavin and Stacey), Robert Aramayo (Amazon's The Lord of the Rings), and Alexandra Maria Lara (Downfall). Behind the scenes, The King's Man is directed by Matthew Vaughn off a script by Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek (Stranger Things), based on the comic book “The Secret Service” by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons.
This trailer certainly has a more Disney-fied vibe to it as put together by their marketing department, but hopefully Vaughn is able to stick to his ultra-violent R-rating. It's honestly been so long since this movie was announced that I kind of forgot it was coming, but the trailer insists the film will be released "only in theaters" this September, so it's good to know it's not being earmarked for a dump on Disney-owned Hulu or going PVOD. Indeed, in the age of COVID-19, Disney cancelled the theatrical release of its big budget Artemis Fowl and released that film straight to Disney+, although the scathing reviews suggest the film's quality may have had something to do with that decision.
As a fan of Vaughn's and the Kingsman franchise, I'm looking forward to The King's Man and I hope Vaughn is able to complete his film series. He said previously he hoped to wrap things up with yet another Kingsman sequel starring Taron Egerton, but with Disney now in charge of 20th Century's franchises, who knows what the future holds.
The prequel movie The King's Man has had a series of delays, but looks to finally be coming out on December 22, 2021. This release date should hopefully stick, as cinemas will begin to reopen in May.
Unfortunately, we don't have any release date yet for Kingsman 3 and it hasn't started filming yet, so it's tricky to judge when we might see it. In August 2020, Vaughn had spoken about wanting to get started soon though.
SCREEN SHOTS
