‘Kingsman 2’ Zeroes in on June 2017 Release Date

This year’s sleeper smash Kingsman: The Secret Service ended with as much definitive resolution as an action movie could possibly have: the bad guy’s been bested, the world saved, and our hero retires to a Swedish princess’ private chamber for some butt stuff. But because the film pulled a staggering $413.3 million haul on its comparatively modest $81 million budget, a follow-up capitalizing on the spy homage’s unlikely success was all but assured. With director Matthew Vaughn and star Taron Edgerton both on board, the production has begun to move full steam ahead by setting a date of release for June 16, 2017.

Whether Edgerton’s co-star Colin Firth will return for the sequel as well is a bit murkier. [SPOILER ALERT] Firth’s character dies midway through Kingsman, making his presence in a sequel rather unlikely, but Vaughn has claimed that if pressed by public demand, he could find a way to get Firth back in the script. So, all aboard for Kingsman 2: Zombie Colin Firth!

20th Century Fox’s choice to plop Kingsman 2 in the middle of their summer release slate represents a bold vote on confidence in the film from the studio. Kingsman flourished in the late-winter/early-spring market, which most studios treat as a dumping ground for mismanaged properties they suspect will tank. This is to say that Kingsman will be facing far stiffer competition at the box-office when it opens in June 2017 against the likes of Wonder Woman and sequels to Cars as well as World War Z.

Kingsman’s hard-R sensibility of raunchy humor may have played well to audiences in the post-Oscars stretch of March and April, but the summer blockbuster battlefield is different terrain entirely. To put Kingsman in serious competition with releases from the other major studios, Fox may be inclined to tone down the violence and profanity, which then runs the risk of alienating the core fanbase that found those exact aspects so attractive in the first place. Expanding the scope of this property without sacrificing the qualities that made it a success to begin with will be a difficult trick for Fox, and now we know that we’ve got two long years to wait until we can find out if they’ll pull it off.