One of the many strengths of Kingsman: The Secret Service was its wholly unique villain. Instead of a mustache-twirling baddie or some hulking muscle-freak, writers Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman crafted a villain of the best kind—one you can’t help but kind of agree with. Samuel L. Jackson’s Richmond Valentine was hell-bent on worldwide destruction, sure, but it was after exhausting his efforts to curb climate change, deciding that starting from scratch was the planet’s only hope of ever recovering from the damage humanity had done. It was a fantastic twist on a familiar trope, and for the highly anticipated sequel, the first step towards topping that villain has been taken.
Per THR, Julianna Moore is in talks to play the Big Bad for Kingsman 2, which has Vaughn back in the director’s chair and Taron Egerton reprising his role as Eggsy, the latest addition to the titular secretive spy organization. We caught up with Egerton last month at Sundance and he told us that Kingsman 2’s villain is even better than Jackson’s character:
“With Kingsman 2, we’re shooting in the summer at present. There’s a script, it’s brilliant. Obviously there’s only so much I can say but what I can say is that we shot [the first] one all in the U.K., that won’t be the case with the next one. It’s a far more international story, we’re going to some incredible places, and we have a villain to rival Samuel L. Jackson—this new one is so brilliantly written I wish I could play it. It’s amazing.”
While there was talk that Colin Firth could potentially return for the sequel despite his character’s SPOILER ALERT demise at the end of the first movie, THR now says that plans to reincorporate the actor either via flashbacks or an identical twin have been discarded, with Firth now not coming back for Kingsman 2. Which is a bit of a bummer—he was great in that first movie—but Egerton proved to be a bona fide star, and I’m excited to see the actor take the reins this time around.
Moore has been more than willing to dabble in franchise fare despite her penchant for dramatic material and, you know, winning an Oscar, as she played a key role in the final two Hunger Games movies and hammed it up alongside Jeff Bridges in Seventh Son. She hasn’t entirely left the smaller dramas behind, though, as she’s poised to star in Carol director Todd Haynes’ children’s book adaptation Wonderstruck and will star opposite Matt Damon in George Clooney’s next directorial effort Suburbicon, which was scripted by the Coen Brothers.
Suffice it to say Moore has a busy schedule, but I do hope that talks with her and the Kingsman folks work out. Given how much fun Jackson had with his character in the first movie, I can’t wait to see what she could bring to the franchise in the follow-up, which will take the action across the pond to the United States.
