Months before Kingsman: The Secret Service (my review here) hit theaters there wasn't a ton of buzz surrounding the film. It had showed off quite a bit of footage at Comic-Con and was greeted coolly, plus the shifting release date didn't exactly bolster a lot of confidence. But that changed in the last few weeks of early screenings and the generally strong response led to an $85M debut worldwide. Not bad at all, and with the film now looking to be a hit, talk has already begun about a sequel....but there's a potential problem. Huge spoilers beyond this point, folks!
Okay, so if you saw Kingsman then you know Colin Firth played the suave, debonaire secret agent Harry Hart in the film, the man who trains young street kid Eggsy (Taron Egerton) in the ways of espionage. While Firth is amazing, his character ultimately dies in dramatic (and very final) fashion, essentially passing the torch to Eggsy. But now that sequels seem possible, director Matthew Vaughn suggests there may be a way to bring Firth back. He tells USA Today...
Vaughn: “A lot of people are very upset that Colin might not be in the sequel but I’m coming up with ideas at the moment. If people buy tickets in America, I’ve got a feeling we’ll figure out a way for having Colin back.”
What's more, if we do see Harry Hart's miraculous recovery, he'll have to deal with Eggsy being the new face of espionage, and all that entails. The old guard is gone, and Eggsy is the beginning of a different way of doing things...
Vaughn: “The sequel will be ‘This is the modern-day gentleman spy.’ Because Harry isn’t. Harry even says, ‘There is a reason why we’ve developed weak chins.’ He said that meaning, ‘Look at us, we need to get new blood into this system,’ and that’s what Eggsy is. I joke that we’ve made the prequel to the Eggsy movie.”
I'm starting to wonder why writer Mark Millar always kills off his most popular characters. Let's not forget he did the same thing with Wanted by killing off the character played by Angelina Jolie, and any attempt at a sequel has been hamstrung by an inability to bring her back. Not saying Firth would cause the same level of fuss, but bringing him back in a way that makes sense is going to be tough.
