The Cast and Director Matthew Vaughn Talk “The King’s Man” Ahead of The Prequel’s Release

After what feels like countless delays, the third instalment in the Kingsman franchise titled The King's Man is finally almost upon us with the prequel set for release on Boxing Day in UK cinemas.

At a press conference with the film's writer/director/producer Matthew Vaughn as well as stars Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Djimon Hounsou, Rhys Ifans, Tom Hollander and Harris Dickinson, we heard all about the upcoming action film, gearing us up to learn all about the origins of the independent intelligence agency Kingsman.

The film has an all-star cast made even bigger by the fact that Tom Hollander plays three different roles. He plays King George V, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II, three people who in real life, were all related. Hollander talked of how this idea all came from the mind of Vaughn who decided to poke fun in the fact that WWI was a family squabble on a very large scale.

Matthew Vaughn decided that a prequel would be the best route for the Kingsman franchise to go down next, not because it had all been part of a big plan but because that's just what he wanted to do next. He wanted to make something that he found exciting and interesting, but more importantly different. Being inspired by The Man Who Would Be King, Vaughn decided that he wanted to make ‘The Man Who Would Be Kingsman' although the title didn't stick in the end.

Vaughn spoke of how he's a big fan of the epic adventure films that Marvel and DC are making right now but they all bear similarities and are very CG-based and so he wanted to make something a bit different, and The King's Man did just that for him which is why we've got a prequel before Kingsman 3.

The cast and Vaughn all seemed enthusiastic about the film and all stated how keen they'd be to return for sequels and Vaughn spoke of how he'd love to keep making more and more prequels taking us right up from the founding of Kingsman in this film up until we meet Eggsy and Harry in Kingsman: The Secret Service.

The cast all had a lot of fun with their roles, whether that was Djimon Hounsou and Harris Dickinson facing the physically demanding fight scenes Vaughn would put them through or Gemma Arterton having to re-do a very messy scene involving lots of cheese and custard because there wasn't enough cheese the first time around. The cast all really enjoyed being part of the film. Ralph Fiennes in particularly was very excited that he got to engage in a sword fight in the film as that's something he's always wanted to do but never had the opportunity to do in the past.

The King's Man arrives in UK cinemas on December 26^th.