The eagerly anticipated Kingsman prequel, The King's Man, is still on track for a theatrical release next month, but filmmaker Matthew Vaughn has also teased an extended cut for a later release.
Vaughn, who helmed the first two cinematic installments of the franchise and returned to direct and co-write the prequel with Karl Gajdusek, has hinted that he removed a significant amount of graphic, raunchy content from the theatrical cut. In an interview with Empire magazine, Vaughn indicated that the movie may receive an extended director's cut, restoring the excised content.
"I've cut so much out of this film that there’s going to be a 40-minute longer version," Vaughn said. "I'll do 'The King's Man Vaughn Cut'. I've got a few really dirty fucking jokes in there."
Vaughn had similarly removed a significant amount of content from 2017's Kingsman: The Golden Circle, with the original cut running for well over three hours. When faced with the decision by the studio to potentially split The Golden Circle into two separate movies, Vaughn instead elected to remove over an hour of content to release it as a single film.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn, The King's Man stars Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou and Charles Dance. The film is slated to be released in theaters on Sept. 18, 2020.