Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service was one of the most pleasant surprises of 2015, and went on to become a huge sleeper hit despite being released in the dumping grounds of mid-February. The slick and subversive espionage actioner earned almost $415 million at the box office, drawing praise for acting as both a tribute to and parody of the genre’s glory days.
The wheels started to wobble ever so slightly with the sequel, though, as The Golden Circle hovered perilously close to self-indulgence and failed to replicate the charm of the original, but it earned nearly the same amount of money. Now, to freshen things up, Vaughn has made the unusual decision of having the next outing be a prequel taking place 100 years ago, and The King’s Man is set to debut in February 2021.
The third installment was originally scheduled for November 2019 before being delayed several times, and in the interim, the writer/director has already started work on the next adventure for Taron Egerton’s Eggsy, which is currently going by the title Kingsman: The Blue Blood. In June 2018, he also confirmed that an eight-episode TV show was in development, but that appears to be just the tip of the iceberg.
Zygi Kamasa, CEO of Kingsman production company Marv Films, recently claimed that Vaughn is actually working on a further seven feature films as well as the small screen series, meaning that audiences will need to prepare themselves for an onslaught of new content. After all, the rights now belong to Disney following their acquisition of Fox, and with the Mouse House more reliant on franchises than ever, it makes sense for them to mine the property for all it’s worth.