The Kingsman movies so far have blended classic James Bond tropes with subversive levels of violence, swearing, and Elton John cameos. Contemporary spy movies with plenty of self-awareness and comic book flourishes, they’re firmly products of director-producer-writer Matthew Vaughn. But the next outing, The King’s Man, is set to change the template in many ways – not just shifting the action back to World War I to tell the origin story of the titular secret service agency, but approaching things in a more traditional way.
Speaking to Empire in the upcoming 2019 Preview Issue – on sale from Thursday 31st October – Vaughn spoke about how The King’s Man has challenged him in surprising ways, taking influence from a John Huston classic. “I thought, ‘Why can’t we do “The Man Who Would Be Kingsman”?’” he says. “Why is no-one making a movie like that anymore? Big, epic, fun adventures with heart and proper storytelling. So, in a weird way, it’s going to be the most old-fashioned movie I’ve made. I am so out of my fucking comfort zone on this. It’s been quite exhilarating.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should expect a po-faced history lesson – this is still a film that casts Rhys Ifans as a Vaughn-ified take on (Ra-Ra) Rasputin. “My version of Rasputin is definitely not gonna be forgotten,” he promises.
Read more about The King’s Man in the December 2019 issue of Empire, on sale from 31 October. The film will arrive in UK cinemas on 14 February 2020.