Folks (myself included) weren’t altogether sold on the financial prospects of Matthew Vaughn’s KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE, a class-warfare-driven action-comedy that seemed to be taking a piss on of the very sort of film it also seemed to want to be. Cut to two-and-a-half months after it’s release, and it’s got over $400 mil at the international box-office; significantly more than KICK-ASS and even Vaughn’s foray into the X-world, FIRST CLASS.
So it’s not any sort of shock that Fox wants another one. They just don’t know who will write it, who will direct it, who will return, or when it will come out.
It was just two weeks ago that Vaughn signed onto Fox’s FLASH GORDON flick, and he didn’t come back for KICK-ASS 2, so it’s quite possible his involvement in a KINGSMAN 2 would be on a producing or maybe even co-writing level.
While it’s safe to expect Taron Egerton’s Eggsy to return and lead this follow-up, there’s the factor of how many of the big names on the original’s poster bit the big one before the credits rolled (SPOILER: a lot of them). Safe to say, Fox doesn’t just want to sell this on Egerton’s face alone. They’ll have to find new eye-catching faces to get folks onboard, even with the brand recognition; I’m sure folks liked Eggsy just fine, but I don’t reckon they liked him that much…
As for the rumor that one of the central characters who died onscreen may actually be alive...well, considering what we saw, that would take some Lucy-level 'splainin' to do.
Matthew Vaughn’s kinetic sense of style and Colin Firth’s immaculate badassery were my favorite aspects of the first KINGSMAN, so the safest move would probably be to get them both back, logistics be damned. If that’s impossible (or, simply, too stupid to consider) then my hope is that they get someone brave enough to blow up a world leader’s head (or two) to write it, someone capable of crazy, inventive action sequences to direct it, and someone with a degree of charm at least approximating Firth’s to star in it.
One thing’s for sure: they’ve already finished the story depicted by Mark Millar in his original comic, so any successive films are going to be original stories building off the chaos left after the events of the last film. All we can pray for is that the new plot developments will be worth a damn.
How do you feel about another KINGSMAN flick with the survivors of Richmond Valentine’s evil plot? Who would you want to see step into the director's chair, provided that Vaughn would rather chill on Mongo with Flash and Ming than with Eggsy, Merlin, and the rest?
