Here at Empire we pride ourselves on bringing you kick-ass news on a daily basis. But today, friends, we don’t just have some kick-ass news for you - we also have some Kick-Ass news. At a career-spanning New York Comic Con panel hosted by our very own Chris Hewitt this past weekend, filmmaker Matthew Vaughn revealed plans to reboot his subversive superhero franchise, as well as talking about the future of Kingsman and an unexpected next project - a movie musical.
“Kick-Ass changed people's perception of what a superhero film is,” Vaughn said in praise of his comic book movie duology, which followed Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s dorkish teen Dave Lizewski as he sought to become a superhero (despite having no actual superpowers). And now it seems the time is nigh to return to the Millarverse once more - although not quite as we know it. “We're doing it again,” Vaughn shared with the crowd at the panel on Saturday evening, reported via Deadline. “None of the other characters from the other Kick-Ass are in it, though we'd like to have them back after the reboot. I can't really talk about it, but it's fun!" Fingers crossed this may mean we’re in for an adaptation of Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s own stellar 2018 Kick-Ass comic reboot, which saw Patience Lee, a Black Afghanistan war veteran and mother, pick up Lizewski’s baton(s).
Elsewhere in the talk, held to promote Vaughn’s upcoming spy thriller Argylle, the director answered the question of whether his other Millarverse baby – the Taron Egerton and Colin Firth starring Kingsman franchise – may be over following sequel The Golden Circle and WWI era prequel The King’s Man. “No, no, no,” he defiantly told a cheering auditorium, “We've got to get on with Kingsman 3 because I was joking that Colin is going to end up being a portrait on the side while Taron is Arthur. So we are working on that at the moment.”
And if that wasn’t exciting enough for fans of Eggsy and co’s secret service shenanigans, then Vaughn also revealed in another interview at NYCC with Collider that he’ll be building on The King’s Man’s wild post-credit scene – which *SPOILER ALERT* introduced actual Adolf Hitler into the franchise – with The Traitor King, which will follow the rise of Hitler. “We’ve written it and it’s pretty cool,” he teased.
Finally, Vaughn also revealed he’s hard at work on his first movie musical. “I'm actually going to be doing a musical next year, can't talk about it," Vaughn said of the as-yet-unnamed project. "And it's taking me so long to find a musical to do because a musical is only as good as the music, and Elton John's catalogue is pretty hard to beat, so I'm trying to match it, at least, and I think we've nearly got there… it's batshit crazy, but it's fun." Jazz hands and dual-wielding batons at the ready then? We’ll have to wait and see.
In the meantime, Vaughn’s Argylle – starring Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston, and Ariana DeBose – releases on Apple TV+ and in theatres on 4 February, 2024.