The Kingsman movies so far have blended classic James Bond tropes with subversive levels of violence, swearing, and Elton John cameos. Contemporary spy movies with plenty of self-awareness and comic book flourishes, they’re firmly products of director-producer-writer Matthew Vaughn. But the next outing, The King’s Man, is set to change the template in many ways – not just shifting the action back to World War I to tell the origin story of the titular secret service agency, but approaching things in a more traditional way.
Speaking to Empire in the upcoming 2019 Preview Issue – on sale from Thursday 31st October – Vaughn spoke about how The King’s Man has challenged him in surprising ways, taking influence from a John Huston classic. “I thought, ‘Why can’t we do “The Man Who Would Be Kingsman”?’” he says. “Why is no-one making a movie like that anymore? Big, epic, fun adventures with heart and proper storytelling. So, in a weird way, it’s going to be the most old-fashioned movie I’ve made. I am so out of my fucking comfort zone on this. It’s been quite exhilarating.”
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Of course, that doesn’t mean you should expect a po-faced history lesson – this is still a film that casts Rhys Ifans as a Vaughn-ified take on (Ra-Ra) Rasputin. “My version of Rasputin is definitely not gonna be forgotten,” he promises.
![Empire – December 2019 cover – 2020 Preview Issue](https://images.bauerhosting.com/legacy/media/5db6/d753/adde/6464/20b1/3b57/empire-december-2019-cover-2020-preview.jpg?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
Read more about The King’s Man in the December 2019 issue of Empire, on sale from 31 October. The film will arrive in UK cinemas on 14 February 2020.