For Kingsman: The Blue Blood to maintain its own successful narrative, it has to avoid replicating a massive retcon that drove the story in its predecessor, Kingsman: The Golden Circle. The third Kingsman movie will bring an end to the story of Kingsman agents Eggsy Unwin and Harry Hart, according to an script update from director Matthew Vaughn. Development of the threequel began in 2017 alongside the box office success of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and is likely to feature the return of multiple familiar faces from the franchise.
The action and violence of the Kingsman franchise may be over-the-top and unrealistic at times, and is often reminiscent of the Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons comic book on which Kingsman: The Secret Service is based. The advanced and unrealistic technology in particular allows for stories to unravel in a comic book-like fashion, with characters surviving situations they should not be able to live through. If Kingsman: The Blue Blood is going to be successful, it needs to avoid one unrealistic change that the second chapter in the trilogy made.
Kingsman 3 Can't Undo Merlin's Death Like The Golden Circle Did With Harry
Another resurrection would feel cheap, and risks irritating the audience.
The most comic book-style retcon that Kingsman: The Golden Circle made was bringing Harry Hart back from the dead. Following one of the greatest one-shot action sequences ever executed on the big screen, Samuel L. Jackson's Richmond Valentine shoots Colin Firth's Harry Hart in the head at point-blank range. The rest of the movie carries on with Harry presumed to be dead, but in Kingsman: The Golden Circle
This was accomplished using advanced medical technology that doesn't actually exist in the real world, but given the highly-stylized nature of the Kingsman movies, it was believable enough. Kingsman: The Blue Blood absolutely must avoid doing something similar to Mark Strong's fan-favorite Merlin, the technology expert for the Kingsmen. Repeating the retcon by bringing Merlin back from the dead not only risks irritating the audience, it also retroactively undermines the significance of Merlin's sacrifice in Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
Merlin's Death Needs To Matter For Kingsman 3's Story
Merlin's sacrifice needs to carry actual weight in the ongoing narrative.
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While the absurdity of Merlin being resurrected after dying in a landmine explosion is reason enough not to execute a retcon, the bigger problem is that it essentially neutralizes the importance of Merlin sacrificing himself. Merlin accepted his own death so that Harry and Eggsy could continue on to stop Poppy Adams from killing millions with her tainted drugs, which brought his arc to a satisfying, heroic close. Merlin's sacrifice not only allowed them to stop that particular crisis, but all those to come that the Kingsmen would handle. His sacrifice, therefore, needs to matter for Kingsman: The Blue Blood.
Merlin's death also needs to matter for the overall strength of the Kingsman movies. If both Harry and Merlin return after a gunshot to the head and a landmine explosion, respectively, then it's impossible to take any death that occurs in that universe seriously. The stakes and danger suddenly don't exist, because in theory, any character could be resurrected even if they are shot, stabbed or blown up. Kingsman: The Blue Blood can not bring Merlin back if it is to be taken seriously in any way.
