How Elton John Fills Mark Hamill's Original 'Kingsman' Role
In Kingsman: The Golden Circle, a plot point involving Elton John makes up for the diversion in [...]
In Kingsman: The Golden Circle, a plot point involving Elton John makes up for the diversion in Mark Hamill's comic book role in the original The Secret Service movie.
According to The Secret Service comic co-creator Dave Gibbons, Mark Hamill and Elton John's involvement in the pair of Kingsman movies was part of a plan which included many more celebrity appearances. Unfortunately, the plan didn't work out, so the sequel offered an opportunity to more accurately adapt Mark Hamill's fate in The Secret Service comics with a different celebrity in the role.
"Well, the idea with the original with the original movie was that there would be lots of famous people in it," Gibbons said. "There were all kinds of sports stars and movie stars and music performers were kind of approached to be part of it. But then it proved an impossible thing to do, you know, you just couldn't get all these people together at the right time and make everybody's schedule work."
Star Wars star Hamill, however, was up for the comic book adaptation from the jump. "Mark Hamill was still very much up for it, so he got a cameo part in the comic book, and then he also got a cameo part in the movie," Gibbons said. "But, confusingly, it was for a completely different character."
In Kingsman: The Secret Service, Hamill portrayed a college professor who was quickly eliminated from the film. Though it is the same fate as his comic book counterpart, the comics saw Hamill as himself in a hostage situation. When a high ranking spy attempted to save him, Hamill met his demise.
"So quite a lot of this was dictated by people's availability," Gibbons said. "Was there a real Mark Hamill in that world as well, who looked exactly like the professor? It becomes very, very complicated."
Ultimately, though, the film franchise does manage to work the celebrity hostage scenario into its second installment. "It does sort of make its way into the second movie, as a few things do that were kind of in the comic that didn't make it into the first movie," Gibbons said. "I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, but you've seen it. Elton John is such a good sport, and it's so funny, it's one of the high spots of the movie, so it kind of worked in the end."
Kingsman: The Golden Circle opens in theaters on September 22, 2017.
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