The King's Man, the prequel to the Kingsman movie series, comes with some surprises, according to one of its stars.
The film, which is set during World War I, charts the origins of the Kingsman secret service as an experienced agent and his new recruit attempt to stop history's worst tyrants from bringing an end to the world.
Gemma Arterton, who stars alongside Ralph Fiennes, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode and Stanley Tucci, exclusively told Digital Spy that Matthew Vaughn's films by default are always surprising.
"Matthew Vaughn's films are never what you expect, are they? They're always challenging, subverting the norm, and taking you by surprise," she said.
"I guess the whole working-class thing, servants in the households that are able to… they're the ones you least suspect, I guess, the ultimate spies because they're in there in conversations with important people, and have access to all of these things, so it was really, really clever.
"There's also a slight nod to don't underestimate the working class as well, which is always something I champion."
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The actress admitted that although she likes that this film is a part of the Kingsman franchise, it will have a much different tone to the movies we've seen so far.
"You know that there's a fanbase that already exists and there will be people that are going to see it, which is always nice. I think with this, we knew it was quite different to the original Kingsman films in tone," she said.
"It's more serious, it's an origin story, so it was nice to know that even though we're part of a franchise, we were able to do our own thing with it and create our own characters. We didn't have to follow a pre-existing mold."
The King's Man is set for release on December 22, 2021.
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Tasha is a freelance writer for with a particular interest in the representation of women in film and TV. After graduating with a Literature degree then journalism qualifications with News Associates a few years further back than she’d like to admit, Tasha began her freelance career. She’s worked as a writer, editor and commissioning editor for a number of publications including Digital Spy. She is also a theatre critic. LinkedIn
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
