By James White | Posted 30 Sep 2018

The plot thickens on the next Kingsman film, which was suddenly announced as dropping into the slot vacated by Bond 25 next year. If the Daily Mail's Baz Bamigboye and his sources are to be believed, writer/director Matthew Vaughn is heading down the prequel route for the third movie, with Ralph Fiennes and Harris Dickinson on to star.

For this new outing, the plan is apparently to spin the clock back to World War I, blending the fictional universe of the Kingsman organization with the real-life Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, which has had a rank known as Kingsman for more than a century. Vaughn is aiming to explore the originals of the intelligence service, with Fiennes and Dickinson likely to share a similar mentor/student relationship as seen with Colin Firth and Taron Egerton in the first two films.

Vaughn and his team are already reportedly locking down studio space for the film, with that 8 November 2019 release date in their sights. Whether there will be any appearance from Firth or Egerton – bookend scenes, possibly? – is, as of right now, a state secret.

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