Matthew Vaughn

Honestly, I’m not even sure this trailer was even necessary. Everything we needed to know about ‘Kingsman: The Golden Circle’ was present in yesterday’s teasers, provided you were willing to go frame-by-frame through the video, take countless screenshots, and form some grand narrative in your head. I watched the trailer in realtime and even I was able to learn that there’s… Julianne Moore? And she works in a… pie shop? Or maybe a bowling alley? She was definitely wearing a bowling league shirt, I figured that much out at least. Unless that wasn’t Julianne Moore? Honestly, the video was a little fuzzy and I couldn’t…

Well it’s about dang time, wouldn’t you say? The first photos from Kingsman: The Golden Circle have debuted, revealing new American spy characters played by Channing Tatum (in a cowboy hat!), Halle Berry and Jeff Bridges. Oh, and Taron Egerton’s Eggsy is back, too, and sporting a rather sharp orange suit — somewhere, Karl Lagerfeld just felt the most mysterious chill abruptly run down his spine during his morning Diet Coke.

For decades, people have made fun of Roger Moore. Moore starred in more James Bond movies than anyone else, but his entire twelve-year, seven-film run is widely regarded today as a goofy, cartoonish disaster. After Moore retired from the role following 1985’s ‘A View to a Kill,’ the Bond franchise refocused, growing darker and more serious. Now 007 belongs to Daniel Craig, who’s as stern as Moore was cheeky. Craig’s Bonds (and the Jason Bourne movies that helped inspire their solemn tone) have been so hugely successful, that there is an assumption that over-the-top spy movies like Moore’s wouldn’t work in 2015. ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ proves they can.

As ‘Batman’ goes, so goes comic-book movies. When Tim Burton turned the Dark Knight into a retro-gothic hero, Hollywood followed suit with a slew of heavily stylized pulp throwbacks. (See: ‘Dick Tracy,’ ‘The Phantom,’ ‘The Shadow,’ etc.) And when Christopher Nolan turned the Dark Knight into, well, ‘The Dark Knight,’ it sparked a wave of “grim and gritty” movies, with serious superheroes doing and saying serious things in outrageous spandex costumes that had been reimagined as biker gear or body armor. (See: ‘Man of Steel’ [Or maybe don’t.]) There’s been some pushback, but we’re really only now coming out of the trend toward ultra-serious, uber-dark comic-book movies.