the king’s man
DIRECTOR Matthew Vaughn STARRING Harris Dickinson, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Djimon Hounsou, Rhys Ifans ETA 16 September 2020
After the enjoyable but risk-averse Kingsman:
The Golden Circle (2017), Matthew Vaughn has taken action to reinvigorate his super-spy franchise for the threequel. Promising a mix of the familiar and fresh, The King’s Man cuts back in time for a father-son romp set to a World War 1 backdrop, with new leads slipping into the bespoke stylings previously worn by Taron Egerton and Colin Firth.
“This film is an origin story,” says Beach Rats breakout star Harris Dickinson, here graduating to a franchise lead as Conrad. “It has the backbone of a Kingsman film, but it’s sort of period-drama… It’s an adventure film, within the scope of World War 1. And [with] more of a father/son story at the heart of it.”
Sharing the lead is Ralph Fiennes as Conrad’s father, who mentors his son in the dapper ways of spywork and extreme violence. By Dickinson’s account, Fiennes was not daunted by Vaughn’s action demands: “He’s super-fit, so I think he just loved all of that.” As did Dickinson, who trained for four hours a day to help nail the stuntwork.
Also on the frontline is a magnificently bearded Rhys Ifans as Rasputin, whose (presumably villainous) role Dickinson is keeping mostly mum about. But he does hint that co-star Gemma Arterton gets a piece of the on-screen action: “She definitely breaks the stereotype of what a woman’s role would be in that period.”
As for that period, Dickinson reassures us that The King’s Man will show respect for history without diluting Vaughn’s trademark irreverence. “It dances between a few different tones, which is cool,” he says. Sounds like this franchise is ready to land on its feet.
GO BIG SCREEN Battle scenes, airborne setpieces, extravagant beards: this one demands IMAX-scale appreciation.