The King’s Man director Matthew Vaughn doesn’t want to see 2019’s awards darling 1917 and is actually a bit worried about it. After exploring the present day Kingsman organization through two action-packed movies in 2015 and 2017, Vaughn takes the franchise (based on Mark Millar’s comics) back to its roots with The King’s Man. The World War I-set prequel explores how the Kingsman came to be as a team of underdogs, led by Ralph Fiennes’ Duke of Oxford, rush to prevent the deaths of millions. The King’s Man offers an alternate look at history while including real life figures like Rasputin (Rhys Ifans) and King George V (Tom Hollander, who also plays two additional characters).

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While perhaps not as widely covered as World War II, the onetime Great War has still been the backdrop for several movies over the years. From Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman to Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, World War I has been covered extensively on the big screen. Most recently, Sam Mendes won numerous accolades for his realistic and technically impressive trip through the trenches, 1917. That film covered two soldiers’ journey from one military camp to another as they try to save hundreds of lives by delivering a message that would prevent a potentially devastating attack.

As both 1917 and The King’s Man involve scenes set in trenches and No Man’s Land, Vaughn is doing his best to avoid watching the former film. Speaking to /Film while promoting The King’s Man, Vaughn was asked if he has seen 1917. He was quick to respond that he has not, and he has no plans to do so. Vaughn said:

“Oh f*** no, we shot this before ‘1917,’ so ask them! I haven’t even seen ‘1917.’ I’m worried about seeing ‘1917.’”

It seems inevitable that any WWI movie released in the aftermath of 1917 will be compared to Mendes’ hit, and Vaughn is perhaps smart for avoiding it as best as possible. As Vaughn pointed out, he filmed The King’s Man before Mendes did 1917. In fact, had it kept to its original release plan, The King’s Man would’ve been released before 1917; the prequel film was scheduled for November 2019, while 1917 didn’t debut until December. However, because of numerous delays, The King’s Man will finally arrive in theaters this week.

It’ll be up to audiences to decide which depiction of World War I is more successful, though it would be good to remember that the two are vastly different movies. Though Vaughn strove for authenticity with The King’s Man, his project is still an action-heavy espionage tale that rewrites history. 1917, meanwhile, is more down to earth and tells a more contained story. They might appear similar in a visual sense, but there is no actual connection to be found between these WWI films.

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Source: /Film

Key Release Dates
  • The King’s Man (2021)Release date: Dec 22, 2021
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Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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