The Kingsman franchise blended the world of comic books and espionage into a couple of tongue-in-cheek action/adventure films coupled with the flair of James Bond. Its first movie earned enough money to usher in its sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which opened the doors to a prequel film titled The King's Man. However, unlike the previous two films, The King's Man has been plagued with an arduously long history of shifting release dates.
The film takes the Kingsman lore back to the early 1900s, where viewers will see the origins of the covert spy agency. Initially, the film was meant to release on November 15, 2019, but was later pushed back to February 14, 2020, and again to September 18, 2020. These early shifts came into the picture because of the Disney/Fox merger in March of 2019, but the September adjustment was made for an undisclosed reason. Typically, release dates getting moved is commonplace in Hollywood, but current events put The King's Man in the awkward position of being the ball in a game of release date ping-pong.
To make matters worse, the COVID-19 pandemic put the brakes on many Hollywood productions. With studios forced to delay their films, projects like The King's Man stood no chance of releasing in early 2020. As a result, its September release date was again pushed back to February 26, 2021. However, once the Marvel Cinematic Universe also delayed their films due to the pandemic, Fox saw an opportunity and chose to move up the movie's release by two weeks to February 12, 2021.
2021 has become a mad dash for films to release to audiences before they disappear from the public consciousness. With Marvel back in full force, so were other action-based projects like Mortal Kombat and F9. Hoping for an earlier release in the year, The King's Man was once again pushed back to March 12, 2021. However, with films like Godzilla vs. Kong and Zack Snyder's Justice League taking up theaters and streaming services at that time, the studio decided to release the film on August 20, 2021, before finally settling on December 22nd of this year.
The official reason for the most recent delays of The King's Man has not been disclosed. However, it's possible that as bigger budget films begin to release, the studio may have no desire to compete with them. Most films have also compensated by letting audiences choose between seeing the film at home on a streaming service or in theaters. The King's Man hasn't been given that option, which could affect its performance.
The Kingsman franchise hasn't had an official release since 2017. Had The King's Man come out on its initial release date, it would have only been two years between films. Considering the franchise's success, that's an ample amount of time for fans to still be interested in the series. But now, after multiple delays and four years since the last film, it's possible that most viewers could forget the film was released at all. Furthermore, the prequel features none of the original cast, making it feel even more separate from its universe. There is still hope for The King's Man's success, but its long history of delays may have greatly hindered its impact.
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 arrives in theaters Dec. 22.