The Kingsman franchise may have been laying dormant for over four years at this stage, with the rights to the property shifting over to Disney following the Fox acquisition during that time, but as far as we know, creator Matthew Vaughn still harbors hugely ambitions plans for the tongue-in-cheek spy series.
Production on prequel The King’s Man wrapped in April 2019, but the Coronavirus pandemic saw the movie pushed back multiple times, and after initially being earmarked for a November 2019 debut, the World War I period actioner is finally set to arrive this coming December. The CEO of Kingsman production company Marv Films teased last year that a further seven films and a TV show were on the docket, and in a new interview, star Mark Strong wouldn’t rule out a potential return as Merlin despite being killed off in The Golden Circle.
“I don’t know. I’d love to because I love making those movies. I thought that triumvirate, that connection of me, Colin Firth, and Taron Egerton was a great little gang. I was quite sad, I think, as were a lot of people, when he comes to his dynamic end, shall we say? At the end of the second one. I think there is a third one, and that universe, anything can happen as you well know. I mean, Colin got shot in the eye and comes back and he’s fine. It’s fantasy, so I’m not ruling it out.”
After The King’s Man, Taron Egerton’s Eggsy is set to wrap up his trilogy with Kingsman: The Blue Blood, with a spinoff focusing on American counterparts Statesman also on the table, along with an eight-episode TV series. So far, Disney have remained silent on whether or not the company plans to proceed with so much additional content under the 20th Century Studios banner, but it presumably depends on how The King’s Man performs at the box office.
The first two installments fared almost identically after earning $414 million and $410 million respectively on budgets that barely troubled $100 million, so if the prequel lives up to those standards, then there’s a high chance that Kingsman will continue on for at least a little while longer, giving Strong the opportunity to make an unexpected return to the fold despite his onscreen demise.