Matthew Vaughn’s plans for the Kingsman franchise are nothing if not ambitious, even if all we’ve seen so far are two irreverent R-rated blockbusters starring Taron Egerton’s Eggsy.
Prequel The King’s Man is finally coming to theaters two years behind schedule next week, though, while Kingsman 3 will round out the story of Eggsy and Colin Firth’s Harry Hart, with production slated to begin in September 2022. If that still wasn’t enough, Vaughn admitted he’s developing a TV series based on the Statesman organization, and there could be even more to come.
Star Gemma Arterton revealed she’d be game to return for a sequel to The King’s Man, but Vaughn may have other plans in store. Speaking to IGN, the filmmaker revealed that he’s enticed by an entirely separate saga comprised of period-set spy stories, which would tackle various major events throughout history.
“I would love to go through history through the eyes of the Kingsman… Take some historical events and find some gray areas to sneak into, but also do the history of espionage because it gets very interesting. I mean, the idea that we can end up doing a Kingsman movie set in the Cold War, and set it in ’62 like Dr. No.
The Cold War, I think it was the period for writing spy movies, or novels, or scripts. And that tone will be serious. I mean, more serious, but still fun and entertaining, but we can because of the periods and we can adapt to the ’50s to the ’60s, to the ’70s. ’70s will go a bit more Austin Powers-y maybe, who knows. The history writes the stories for us.”
The King’s Man isn’t tracking for a great opening weekend, but with Kingsman 3 on the way, the property still has plenty of gas in the tank. One potential roadblock could be that the rights now belong to Disney, which isn’t the sort of company to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at R-rated content, but the upcoming World War I adventure will nonetheless push Kingsman closer to becoming a billion-dollar cash cow.
