Spying is back. Not the kind that involves tapping celebrities’ phones or hiding in a politician’s flower bed, but proper, old-fashioned, dead-drops-on-Hampstead-Heath-and-poisoned-tipped-brollies espionage. The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Mission Impossible 5 and, of course, **SPECTRE **all hit our screens next year. Leading the way, though, is Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service, the cocky young upstart in a bumper pack of well-established properties.
Empire’s February issue, a fully-laden 2015 preview special, carries plenty on all four espionagers, but Kingsman is our ace in the mole hole. Vaughn opened his palatial doors to our highly-trained(-ish) correspondent, chatting freely about the project’s origins and sharing exclusive stills from the film, including two we’re debuting below.
The pics show Taron Egerton’s reformed bad boy Eggsy, totting some heavy weaponry while keeping his Savile Row threads impressively uncreased, as well as Vaughn himself and his two other co-stars, Colin Firth’s spymaster Harry Hart and Samuel L. Jackson as megalomaniac billionaire Bond-villain-alike Valentine.
Empire’s wide-ranging chat with Vaughn also takes in the projects that – famously, occasionally contentiously – failed to fire for a man who has always prized his own creative freedom. X-Men 3 and **Thor **come up in conversation, the writer/director candidly reflecting on his experiences on both, but it’s ultimately all about a passion project that sees him paying tribute to his beloved 007 films.