How James Bond Influenced The Kingman Franchise
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Director and espionage fiction bad boy Matthew Vaughn is up to his old tricks again. As he’s using Harry Potter as an example of how meta Argylle will get with its spy antics, the director is once again poking fun at and paying homage to the capers that have helped build the genre. It’s certainly a strategy that’s worked for Matthew in the past, which was proven yet again through his recollection of how the James Bond movies influenced the development of his own Kingsman series.
Two Big Ways The James Bond Legacy Inspired The Birth Of Kingsman
As he appeared at this year’s New York Comic Con, Vaughn took to the annual convention to discuss the world of his next spy-fi creation. Keeping those Wizarding World influences firmly in mind, Argylle’s trailer showed the world a lot more about where it comes from than one would have expected. In remarks provided via CB, Matthew Vaughn’s co-creation of Kingsman with writer Mark Millar sounds roughly about the same.
An idea popped into Vaughn and Millar’s collective heads, and inspiration struck. However, here are the specific catalysts from the 007 adventures that helped the process along in a big way:
[The idea for Kingsman] literally came with Mark Millar and I in a pub, and, I love you Daniel Craig, but we were just thinking 'Bond's got a bit too serious.' We just came up with it literally over a few pints of Guinness at a pub called The Windsor Castle ... We were talking about how Ian Fleming didn't want to cast Sean Connery. And the director of Dr. No was like to Fleming, 'Give me two weeks and I will transform the Scottish big bloke into an English gentleman.' So he took him to Savile Row. He converted Connery into Bond and we thought, 'Well, let's take that idea and do our version because Connery had his rough edges.' So that was the kernel of the idea.
Just as Sean Connery’s nerves about becoming 007 required some liquid courage, Mark Millar and Matthew Vaughn’s pints at the pub gave us the absurdly brilliant send-up of Commander Bond’s antics. Fittingly enough, that reticence to cast Connery planted the seed that blossomed into something pretty special.
Apparently, that special brand of mocking and competing with James Bond may have come at a cost though. Despite often being rumored as a candidate to direct future installments in that world, Vaughn has pretty much written off stepping into the 00-director’s chair.
Why Matthew Vaughn Has Written Off His Chances To Direct A James Bond Movie
Despite how much fans may want Matthew Vaughn to direct Bond 26, or any other future entry for that matter, the Layer Cake director has pretty much taken himself out of the running. In a recent interview with Happy Sad Confused, Matthew chalked that disappointing outlook to the following:
I’ve got more chance at being cast as Bond then directing Bond. Ask them, they’re not keen on me… ‘Kingsman’ is my Bond… everything I do in ‘Kingsman’ I would’ve done in Bond.
“They” are, of course, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, the producers that oversee EON Productions as the family business. As the gatekeepers of all things 00, that feels like a firm and reasonable explanation as to why it’s not likely Kingsman’s co-creator will ever tackle James Bond. If Colin Firth’s monologue about spy movies didn’t take him out of the running, the exploding heads and risque humor probably sealed the deal.
That wasn’t the full extent of Matthew Vaughn’s talks about what could have been. In that same interview, Argylle’s director also admitted to plotting an entire Superman trilogy with Millar, in hopes of working on the DCEU’s Man of Steel. Unfortunately, that stands as another intriguing “what if…” that lines the hallowed halls of comic book movies we almost saw.
Matthew Vaughn certainly isn’t hurting for projects to work out his espionage adventure muscles. As The King’s Man ending left the door open for the continuation of that prequel series, Kingsman 3 is also a going concern for the ever-busy director to tackle. At the moment though, it’s full steam ahead Argylle, which will debut in theaters as part of the 2024 movie schedule on February 2nd.
