Taron Egerton says Kingsman 2 has a villain so good he wants the part

There were plenty of great spy films released in 2015, but even with the James Bond and Mission: Impossible franchises returning to cinemas, Kingsman: The Secret Service still managed to stand out from the pack. Samuel L. Jackson's memorable performance as the film's 'sensitive' villain is one of the bigger reasons why that was the case, and according to his co-star Taron Egerton the baddie in the sequel will be just as good.

Speaking with Collider at Sundance, Egerton said: "With Kingsman [2], we’re shooting in the summer at present. There’s a script, it’s brilliant. Obviously there’s only so much I can say but what I can say is that we shot [the first] one all in the U.K., that won’t be the case with the next one. It’s a far more international story, we’re going to some incredible places, and we have a villain to rival Samuel L. Jackson—this new one is so brilliantly written I wish I could play it. It’s amazing."

Those are encouraging words, and it will be interesting to see which actor steps up to follow in Jackson's dastardly footsteps. Perhaps the bigger challenge in crafting a Kingsman sequel is how to fill the void left by Colin Firth who played Egerton's mentor, Harry Hart, and was a big part of why the film worked so well. There's already been rumblings from the original cast and crew about how they could potentially bring the character back after he was shot in the head in the first movie, so you never know.

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.