If you can believe it, The King’s Man is finally about to make its way into theaters. As a casualty of both the pandemic and Disney’s takeover of 20th Century Fox, the Kingsman prequel was originally set to release back in November 2019 before having its due date changed a whopping seven times until it eventually settled on its current one. So, for what feels like the fiftieth time, we’ve now got another final trailer for the flick. You can check it out above.
In contrast to the previous ones, this final final trailer switches the focus from the heroes to the villains and introduces us to “history’s most evil legends.” It seems Ralph Fiennes and Harris Dickinson’s first Kingsman agents, operating in the run-up to World War One, will be pitted against a kind of Legion of Doom of bad guys from the period. The trailer promises it’s based on “true” or “untold” events, but expect King’s Man to play fast and loose with history.
After a SPECTRE-like meeting of the world’s worst villains in the 1910s, the trailer highlights three of the main ones the nascent Kingsman organization will have to battle. First, there’s Gavrilo Princip, the Serbian assassin who killed an Austrian duke, starting the chain reaction that led to the First World War. Then there’s infamous super-spy and femme fatale Mata Hari, who Fiennes’ gentleman agent bests with the aid of a scarf.
Finally, there’s the mad monk Rasputin, the film’s main antagonist, as played by Rhys Ifans, who looks to be not so much chewing up the scenery as turning it into mincemeat with his entertainingly OTT performance. The terrific cast also includes Gemma Arterton, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Daniel Bruhl, Djimon Hounsou, and Stanley Tucci.
The King’s Man at last hits theaters on Dec. 22.