Matthew Vaughn

Great news for fans of gleefully over-the-top spy thrillers and irresistibly delicious brown spirits: Statesman, the official ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ whiskey is now available. Named after the front company for the American spy agency featured in the film, the 95-proof bourbon is made by Old Forester. Splendid!

You may not be ready for Comic-Con, but the cast of Kingsman: The Golden Circle is all dressed up and ready to head to San Diego. The highly-anticipated sequel will hold court in Hall H this week, and 20th Century Fox has officially revealed which stars will be participating in the panel via a new series of very bespoke character posters. Spoiler: Pretty much everyone you want to see will be there — yes, even Jeff Bridges.

Following yesterday’s reports that Robert Zemeckis and Kingsman’s Matthew Vaughn are at the top of WB’s list of possible directors for the Scarlet Speedster’s solo movie comes another big newsflash for fans of The Flash (sorry): While Zemeckis is still heavily rumored to be the frontrunner, a new report reveals that two notable directors have already passed, and Billy Crudup is no longer attached to play the role of Barry Allen’s father.

Almost as many people have tried to direct a movie version of The Flash as have worn the costume in the comics and called themselves the Fastest Man Alive. About a decade ago, an early version of the film was in development with directors like Shawn Levy and David Dobkin. Later, Seth Grahame-Smith came aboard, only to leave the film over “creative differences.” Then Dope filmmaker Rick Famuyiwa joined the team, only to depart as well last fall over similar concerns over the direction of the film. It’s a tough directing assignment to be sure, joining a cinematic universe in progress (and sometimes rocky progress, at that), and having to measure up with (and also be markedly different from) a very popular television that is currently on the air.

There are several reasons to be excited for Kingsman: The Golden Circle (mostly every name on the cast list), not the least of which is that it’s the first time that Matthew Vaughn has returned to direct a sequel to one of his own films. After disappointing follow-ups to X-Men: First Class and Kick-Ass, Vaughn’s involvement in The Golden Circle has us feeling far more optimistic about Eggsy’s next mission. And it looks as though Vaughn is feeling pretty good about it, too, because he’s already cooked up an idea for a third Kingsman movie.

Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman sequel is taking Eggsy & Co. across the pond to the good ol’ US of A, where they’ll meet the members of Statesman, the American iteration of the top-notch super-secret spy agency — including new characters played by Jeff Bridges and Channing Tatum. As you can see in this new featurette for Kingsman: The Golden Circle, the agents aren’t the only notable thing about Statesman, which manufactures its very own signature bourbon. And it looks like Kingsman fans (of legal drinking age, of course) will have a chance to taste that branded booze relatively soon.

Honestly, I’m not even sure this trailer was even necessary. Everything we needed to know about ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ was present in yesterday’s teasers, provided you were willing to go frame-by-frame through the video, take countless screenshots, and form some grand narrative in your head. I watched the trailer in realtime and even I was able to learn that there’s… Julianne Moore? And she works in a… pie shop? Or maybe a bowling alley? She was definitely wearing a bowling league shirt, I figured that much out at least. Unless that wasn’t Julianne Moore? Honestly, the video was a little fuzzy and I couldn’t…

Last week, 20th Century Fox teased the first footage from Kingsman: The Golden Circle via ten glorious seconds of accelerated action. There were gunfights, and Julianne Moore making burgers (I think), and plenty more blink-and-you’ll-miss-it looks as the exciting new world of Matthew Vaughan’s film. So, secure in the knowledge that studios never release trailer teases without the trailer following shortly thereafter, we all gathered around our computers the following day and waited for our first look at the highly anticipated sequel. And waited. Aaaaaaand waited.

If you blink, you won’t just miss a couple of frames of the new Kingsman: The Golden Circle trailer — you’ll miss the whole thing. In keeping with Kingsman’s subversive, irreverent attitude, the first teaser for the upcoming sequel sidesteps the usual format: You won’t find a pointless five-second clip here. Instead, 20th Century Fox has served up the entire forthcoming trailer, condensed to 10 hyper-edited seconds.

Well it’s about dang time, wouldn’t you say? The first photos from Kingsman: The Golden Circle have debuted, revealing new American spy characters played by Channing Tatum (in a cowboy hat!), Halle Berry and Jeff Bridges. Oh, and Taron Egerton’s Eggsy is back, too, and sporting a rather sharp orange suit — somewhere, Karl Lagerfeld just felt the most mysterious chill abruptly run down his spine during his morning Diet Coke.