With cinemas finally opening back up, blockbusters are officially getting concrete release dates. Fans of Matthew Vaughan’s Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle were especially happy this week as 20th Century Studios dropped a new trailer for The King’s Man after numerous delays, offering a fresh look at the upcoming prequel.
The King’s Man marks the third film in Matthew Vaughan’s series, with the new action-adventure offering a different approach to the other two: it will take the form of an origin story, exploring how the spy franchise came to be. Set in the 1900s, the film will dig deeper into the Kingsman collective as the film follows tyrants and criminal masterminds as they plot a war to wipe out millions of people, which in turn results in the creation of the espionage group.
When speaking about the prequel, director Matthew Vaughan explained how he took inspiration from X-Men: First Class, explaining that The King’s Man “is a proper origin story. People can watch this movie if they haven’t seen Kingsman properly. People who hate Kingsman right reluctantly like this one.” Ahead of the dropping of the new trailer, the official Twitter page for The King’s Man had also tweeted fans with indications of a new sneak peek. Fans were given a code to decipher, alongside an audio description – true Kingsman style!
While the new trailer doesn’t reveal anything new from the previous ones, it most definitely got fans hyped who have eagerly been waiting for this prequel for a LONG time now. The trailer is filled to the brim with dramatic music alongside a whole plethora of fight scene montages, promising plenty of action in the movie. After Disney took control of 20th Century Fox earlier this year, fans were worried that the film would have a distinct Disney-fied tone to it. While the trailer does suggest this (the line ‘the world is ruled by corruption and greed’ has Disney written all over it), there is also enough fight scenes to suggest Vaughn’s distinct R-rated content is in there.
The trailer also gives us our first proper look at the leads in action, seeing the Kingsman introduced for the very first time with the Duke of Oxford heard telling his new partner “we are the first independent intelligence agency, refined but brutal, civilized but merciless.” The trailer also insists the film will be released “only in theatres” rather than on Disney+ or other streaming services, which was the case with Disney’s recent release Artemis Fowl. I am surprisingly happy about this despite the current pandemic situation changing the way we will be watching films in theatres, as I largely do believe that Artemis Fowl‘s release on Disney+ negatively impacted its release and reception.
When The King’s Man news was first announced, fans, myself included, were very sceptical about the prequel. This especially because Taron Egerton and Colin Firth will be unfortunately replaced by the just-as-brilliant Ralph Fiennes and Harris Dickinson in the origin story. However, after seeing the new trailer, I can happily say I am extremely hyped, and look forward to the film dropping 18 September.
Words by Lucy Lillystone