Despite seemingly being blown into a million pieces during the events of 2017’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Mark Strong refuses to rule out a return to the action-packed spy franchise. Strong, who played the Kingsman’s technical support operative, Merlin, in both installments, feels that anything can happen in this particular comic book movie universe, which he hopes leaves the door ajar for his resurrection.
“I don’t know. I’d love to because I love making those movies. I thought that triumvirate, that connection of me, Colin (Firth), and Taron (Egerton) was a great little gang. I was quite sad, I think, as were a lot of people, when he comes to his dynamic end, shall we say? At the end of the second one. I think there is a third one, and that universe, anything can happen as you well know. I mean, Colin got shot in the eye and comes back and he’s fine. It’s fantasy, so I’m not ruling it out.”
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Thanks to ever-reliable talents and charisma of Mark Strong, Merlin proved to be a very popular character in the Kingsman franchise, and no doubt many would love to see him come back…though how exactly that could be achieved is something of a dilemma. A robot perhaps? Or maybe just a cameo as a hologram of Merlin that has been infused with his personality and memories? Whatever was decided, it sounds like Strong would jump at the chance to rejoin the Kingsman crew.
The third movie in the series, The King’s Man, is due to be released on December 22, 2021. Like so many other movies, The King’s Man has been delayed repeatedly amid the global circumstances, though it does seem that the period spy flick has been more harshly affected than most. Originally scheduled to be released on November 15, 2019, the movie was pushed back first to February 14, 2020, and then to September 18, 2020. The release date was then pushed back to February 26, 2021, and, following the delay of Marvel’s slate of Phase Four movies, The King’s Man was then moved up two weeks to February 12, 2021, before being moved back again to March 12, 2021. In January 2021, the release date was delayed again to August 20, 2021, before then being further delayed to the December 2021 date. Phew.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn from a screenplay by Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek and a story by Vaughn, The King’s Man stars Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance and finds a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather together to plot a war to wipe out millions of people and destroy humanity. One man and his protégé must race against time to stop them, as the movie reveals the origin of the elite secret service.
Vaughn has revealed that The King’s Man will plant seeds for Kingsman 3 saying, “We’ve put seeds for what’s going to happen in Kingsman 3 all the way back into this. And it’s going to be very different.” The director is reportedly planning up to seven movies in the franchise, as well as potential spin-offs and television projects, which should offer ample opportunities for Mark Strong’s Merlin to return in one way or another. This comes to us from Joblo.
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