This story features spoilers for Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Matthew Vaughn, director of British spy thriller Kingsman: The Secret Service, has insisted that he hasn’t depicted the death of Barack Obama in the movie.
A scene towards the film’s climax shows various world leaders getting offed, thanks to the nefarious plan of supervillain Richmond Valentine, played by Samuel L Jackson. Shown from behind, a man who resembles Obama is amongst the unfortunates, but Vaughn is now trying to quell any controversy.
“It’s not Obama. I just want to be clear. This is not an attack on Obama at all,” he told Entertainment Weekly, but said that instead the president is merely “reminiscent” of Obama, to give the film a frisson of contemporary reality. “Something tells me that if Obama does watch the movie, it will make him laugh. I know he’s a big comic book fan, so I think he’ll go with it... I think Obama is a good man.”
The film’s central star, Colin Firth, has said of the scene: “I just think we’re going more for the mischievous hint that it’s [Obama]. It’s such an entertaining scene, because it feels like we’re making mischief wherever we can find it.” Fellow star Jack Davenport said: “We’re not taking ourselves seriously... I feel like spy movies have been missing the absurd angle for a while.”
Vaughn may be trying to cover his back after another recent film which depicted the assassination of a head of state, The Interview, ended up prompting a major diplomatic incident. The action comedy features a scene in which North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is blown up, to the strains of a Katy Perry song – an outraged hacker group attacked Sony Pictures in response, leaking a vast data cache and threatening cinemas with terrorist acts if they screened the film.
