The next installment of Matthew Vaughn's KINGSMAN franchise will be pushing back the clock by a century as it explores the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency featured in KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE and KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE. As a collection of history's worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them in THE KING'S MAN. However, just because it takes place a century before Eggsy (Taron Egerton) joined up with the Kingsman doesn't mean that it can't contain a couple of hints of what's to come.
While speaking with Empire, THE KING'S MAN director Matthew Vaughn teased that the upcoming film also serves to set up the future of the franchise.
We’ve put seeds for what’s going to happen in Kingsman 3 all the way back into this. And it’s going to be very different.
Vaughn added that he was initially planning on letting someone else take the reins of KINGSMAN 3, but he hasn't ruled out helming it himself. "I actually don’t know what I want to do," Vaughn said says. "There is an opportunity for a director to really change it up, but I’m considering it." Empire also released a pair of new images from THE KING'S MAN, which give us a look at Oxford (Ralph Fiennes), Shola (Djimon Hounsou), and Polly (Gemma Arterton).
Matthew Vaughn also teased that an even longer version of THE KING'S MAN could be in our future, as he quite a lot of the film wound up on the cutting room floor. "I’ve cut so much out of this film that there’s going to be a 40-minute longer version," Vaughn revealed "I’ll do “The King’s Man Vaughn Cut’. I’ve got a few really dirty f**king jokes in there."
THE KING'S MAN is currently slated to hit theaters on September 18, 2020, but I suppose that still depends on what COVID-19 has to say.