Kingsman franchise director Matthew Vaughn has revealed King’s Man 2 is titled The Traitor King and will explore the rise of Adolf Hitler, building on the mid-credits scene from the 2021 prequel film.
In a recent interview with Collider at New York Comic-Con 2023, Vaughn said the script for The King’s Man sequel is written and “pretty cool”, as he let slip that the next installment will cover “the rise of Hitler” and how he “basically was supported by the English aristocracy” during his ascent to power in Germany.
“I was like, ‘well, that’s interesting,’ and how the world was worrying so much about Communism that Fascism rose up,” Vaughn said of the story’s topical subject matter. “I look at the world at the moment, everyone getting distracted and worrying about this [and that], and if you worry too much about [this], bad things can happen here. So, it is a story that I think needs to be recalled. We’re calling it The Traitor King.”
I look at the world at the moment, everyone getting distracted and worrying about this [and that], and if you worry too much about [this], bad things can happen here. So, it is a story that I think needs to be recalled. We’re calling it The Traitor King.
The King’s Man, released in 2021, acts as an origin story for The Kingsman Agency that was first seen in the previous two Vaughn films based on the comics by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons. The movie’s mid-credits scene hinted that any potential follow-up to the prequel would focus on the events that led to World War 2.
While Vaughn appears to have mapped out a lot of details for the next chapter, he is uncertain as to whether to produce The Traitor King as a feature film or a TV series. The filmmaker revealed that it’s not the first time the format has been up for debate, as he originally envisioned The King’s Man as a small-screen story.
“The King’s Man was originally meant to be a TV series, and I got persuaded to make it as a film,” Vaughn said. “What we wanted to do was something like The Crown but with espionage and a bit of a Kingsman hit going through all of the decades.”
Vaughn previously told IGN that he hoped The King’s Man would perform well enough at the box office to allow the Kingsman films to exist as two series the original modern-day-set movies and prequels in period settings, with the latter exploring “the history of espionage” and some of the “grey areas” of historical events.
The King’s Man grossed $126 million at the worldwide box office, though cinema attendance was generally down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the long-awaited and highly anticipated action prequel also received mixed reviews, with IGN calling the third entry in the franchise the “most unhinged” and “divisive” yet.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X @AdeleAnkers.
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