Kingsman: The Secret Service

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Fandom
Name: Kingsman: The Secret Service
Abbreviation(s): Kingsman, KTSS
Creator: Jane Goldman & Matthew Vaughn
Based Upon: The Secret Service by Mark Millar & Dave Gibbons
Date(s): December 13, 2014 (Butt-Numb-A-Thon), January 29, 2015 (UK), February 13, 2015 (US)
Medium: live-action film
Country of Origin: United Kingdom, United States
External Links: Kingsman: The Secret Service at Wikipedia, Official Site, IMDB
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Kingsman: The Secret Service is a spy action comedy film directed by Matthew Vaughn which is based upon the comic book series, The Secret Service by Mark Miller and Dave Gibbons. It is often described as a parody of James Bond films and the genre.

Canon

A spy organization recruits an unrefined, but promising street kid into the agency's ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius. [1]

The film stars Colin Firth (as Harry Hart aka Galahad), Samuel L. Jackson (as the villain Richmond Valentine), Mark Strong (as Merlin), Taron Egerton (as Eggsy Unwin), Michael Caine (as Chester King aka Arthur), Sofia Boutella (as villain second-in-command Gazelle) and Sophie Cookson (as Roxy). Mark Hamill appears in the film playing Professor James Arnold, the character which originally had his name. Hamill plays his character with his Joker voice but with a British accent.

A sequel, titled Kingsman: The Golden Circle, was released in September 2017, with the main cast returning. It takes place a year after the events of the first film and follows the members of Kingsman needing to team up with their American counterpart, Statesman, after the world is held hostage by villain Poppy Adams (portrayed by Julianne Moore) and her drug cartel, "The Golden Circle". It also stars Channing Tatum (as the Statesman Agent Tequila), Halle Berry (as Ginger Ale, Merlin's Statesman counterpart), and Pedro Pascal (as Statesman Agent Jack Daniels/Whiskey). In the movie, Eggsy has officially joined Kingsman, taken his late mentor Harry Hart's title of Galahad, and begun a relationship with Tilde, Crown Princess of Sweden, whom he rescued in the first film. Harry Hart is confirmed to have survived thanks to Statesman technology, but suffers from amnesia and has lost an eye.

A third film in the series was announced in 2018 but repeatedly pushed back. The King's Man, now slated for a September 2020 release, will be a prequel film and will star Ralph Fiennes. Eggsy will not be appearing in this film.

A final film featuring Eggsy's performance was reported to be shot in September 2022, but new information has not been released.

Fandom

As of February 2015, shortly after the movie's UK and US releases, the fandom was fairly small but very dedicated - fanworks such as fanart and gifs were regularly being added to Tumblr, over 40 works posted to Archive of Our Own and 18 at FanFiction.Net[2]. There were many posts on Tumblr recommending the film[3], especially over the 50 Shades of Grey film.

The Kingsman fandom had grown much larger by May 2015, especially on AO3, with over 1,470 works. FFN was more rarely used, with only over 180 works at that date.

At the beginning of 2016, Kingsman was listed amongst the "Emergent Active Fandoms" of 2015 on AO3 in destinationtoast's statistical round-up - it was the 37th fandom having produced the most works that year (a total of 3841).[4]

Crossovers are moderately common, most notably with Sherlock, James Bond, Harry Potter and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The popular theory that Harry Hart had survived his shooting by Valentine was confirmed in the sequel film, which led to an avalanche of fanfics and fanarts.

Characters

Popular characters include Harry Hart, Eggsy Unwin, Gazelle and Merlin. Harry's apparent death during the first film is widely ignored or rectified. Many fans praise the fact that the film had POC characters (Valentine, Gazelle) and a BAMF disabled female villain (Gazelle)[5]. The character of Princess Tilde and her encounter with Eggsy were largely ignored by the fandom after the first film, but in the second film she and Eggsy are in a longterm relationship, which even culminating in a royal wedding, is still largely ignored by the fandom in favor of the pairing between Harry and Eggsy.

Shipping

The juggernaut pairing in the fandom is the Harry/Eggsy slash ship, also known by its smushname: "Hartwin". As of Jan 2016, it represented 2500+ works out of the 3900+ total works on AO3.

Other (much less prevalent) pairings include: Harry/Merlin (300 works), Merlin/Eggsy (200 works), Merlin/Roxy (191 works), Eggsy/Roxy, Roxy/Princess, Eggsy/Princess, and Harry/Roxy. Other notable pairings are Harry/Merlin/Eggsy as the only poly/threesome pairing with a significant number of fics, and Lancelot/Percival, as the two characters never share the screen and Percival has only a few seconds of screen time in the entire movie.

Platonic relationships are also present in fanworks such as Harry & Eggsy (190 works), Eggsy & Roxy (102 works).

Fanworks

Fics

As of Jan 2016:

Crossovers:

Recs:

Podfics

Fanart

Vids

Meta

Archives & Fannish Links

References

  1. ^ Summary comes from IMDB page.
  2. ^ Stats as of February 18, 2015
  3. ^ Example: Power Point on why you should see Kingsman by itsabulldoginnit
  4. ^ Year in Fandom:2015 spreadsheet by destinationtoast, accessed jan 12, 2016.
  5. ^ Why Kingsman is the perfect movie, Reasons you should go see Kingsman: The Secret Service
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