It's been four years since Kingsman: The Golden Circle killed all momentum for the Kingsman franchise, but now we are finally getting close to the release of another film in the growing franchise: The King's Man. The prequel film, from director Matthew Vaughn, is scheduled to be released on December 22 after many of reveals, but with the film finally being screened for critics, the first reactions are starting to come in.
By nature of being a prequel, The King's Man won't see the return of Taron Egerton or Colin Firth, but the film still boasts an impressive star-studded cast, including Ralph Fiennes as the Duke of Oxford, the founder of the Kingsman organization, and Harris Dickinson, who is recruited into the organization. The film also stars Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, Charles Dance, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Aaron Vodovoz, Todd Boyce, Branka Katic, Valerie Pachner, Olivier Richters, Stanley Tucci and more.
Vaughn returns to direct the third film in the franchise after having written and directed Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The film franchise is based on the graphic novel The Secret Service from Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons about a secret spy organization. The prequel film is meant to tell the origin of the organization and how it was born amidst the horrors of World War I, weaving historical fiction with gory action and dark humor.
Now that we're only a couple of short weeks away from the release of The King's Man, it's time to find out what critics and journalists thought of Vaughn's latest action film. Was it a huge mistake to return to this franchise? Does it suffer from being a prequel? Or is there enough darkly comedic action to win over naysayers? How is Rhys Ifans's Rasputin? Check out some of the early reactions for The King's Man below.