Eggsy Unwin

Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (codename: Galahad) is a fictional secret agent appearing in the comic series Kingsman, published by Marvel Comics under the company's imprint Icon Comics and later Image Comics, and set in the Millarworld. The character was created by artist Dave Gibbons and writer Mark Millar.

Eggsy Unwin
Millarworld character
First appearanceKingsman: The Secret Service #1 (April 2012)
Created byMark Millar
Dave Gibbons
Portrayed byTaron Egerton
Alex Nikolov (young)
Voiced byTaron Egerton
In-universe information
Full nameGary Unwin
NicknameEggsy
GenderMale
Title
OccupationSecret agent
Marine (formerly; film series)
AffiliationKingsman
Royal Marines (formerly; film series)
Family
  • Michelle Unwin (mother)
  • Comic series:
  • Ryan Unwin (brother)[1]
  • Jack London (uncle)[2]
  • Film series:
  • Daisy Baker (half-sister)
  • Dean Baker (stepfather)
  • Lee Unwin (deceased father)
SpousePrincess/Queen Tilde of Sweden (film series)
Significant othersKwaito (The Red Diamond)
Mindy McCready (Big Game)
Abilities

Eggsy is a young and effective assassin, recruited by his uncle Jack London (former family friend Harry Hart in the film series) from a live of poverty to to work for Kingsman, an independent offshoot of the British Secret Service. In The Secret Service, Eggsy undergoes a three-year training course to become a spy, before facing off a plot to solve the world's overpopulation problem by inciting a worldwide battle royale. Eggsy returns in The Big Exit, The Red Diamond, and Big Game, respectively in each: stealing back Britain's Brexit "leaving fee" from the European Union, teaming up with SASS agent Kwaito to shut down the Red Diamond computer virus, and teaming up with independent vigilante Mindy McCready / Hit-Girl to protect her from assassination at the hands of Wesley Gibson and his Fraternity of Super-Criminals.

Eggsy Unwin is portrayed by Taron Egerton in the feature film adaptations Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), who also voices the character in the short film #TBT to That Time Archer Met Kingsman (2017). He will reprise the role in the forthcoming sequel film Kingsman: The Blue Blood. Alex Nikolov plays Eggsy as a child in The Secret Service. The character has received a positive critical reception, Egerton winning the 2015 Empire Award for Best Male Newcomer for his initial portrayal.

Comic series

The Secret Service

In The Secret Service (2012), Gary "Eggsy" Unwin is recruited by his uncle, Jack London, to work for Kingsman, part of the British Secret Service. After Eggsy is put on an extensive three-year training course, performing assassinations and arresting a Colombian drug lord, Jack is killed by cellphone entrepreneur James Arnold for sleeping with his girlfriend, unaware of his Kingsman allegiance or Jack's knowledge of his plans to use a satellite signal to make the poor of humanity slaughter each other in order to solve the overpopulation problem. Having witnessed his uncle's death through his spywear eyeglasses, and on learning Arnold's plans are supported by the elitist high-level members of Kingsman, Eggsy recruits his fellow trainees to an assault mission on Arnold's base, hidden inside a mountain in Switzerland. After ambushing and battling Arnold's troops, and freeing the celebrities he had kidnapped (so that they wouldn't die when the satellites activated), Eggsy engages in a fist fight with Arnold's henchman and former Kingsman agent Gazelle, before leaving to confront Arnold. Arnold activates the satellite signal and waits for the people to slaughter each other, but instead, due to one of Eggsy's colleagues having changed the frequency, people worldwide begin to have sex with one another. Eggsy then kills a confused Arnold. In an epilogue, Eggsy reads his uncle's will, revealing that two-thirds of Jack's estate will go to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the British Heart Foundation, the final third going to Eggsy's mother, informing Eggsy to take good care of his gadget-laden car, or he will "come back and bloody haunt him." As Eggsy reports to Kingsman Headquarters, Sir Giles briefs him about a mission that concerns "trouble in Moscow".[3]

Artist Dave Gibbons holding aloft a signed drawing of Eggsy at San Diego Comic Con International in 2017.

The Big Exit

In The Big Exit (2017), shortly after Brexit, Eggsy is tasked with safeguarding the United Kingdom's controversial "divorce fee" for leaving the European Union on its journey to Brussels, consisting of £100 billion in solid gold bars, from being stolen by a group of pro-Brexit terrorists, "The Union Jacks", disguised as French activists to steal the gold back for the UK. It is eventually revealed that Eggsy's mission is in fact a decoy so that Kingsman themselves can destroy "The Union Jacks" and swipe the gold from both the British Parliament and the European Union and use it to fund hospitals and education services back in England.[4]

The Red Diamond

In The Red Diamond (2017–2018), after knocking out Prince Philip on saving him from a group of Greek terrorists, Eggsy is put on a week-long leave of absence. Following a date with actress Emma Watson, which he abandons to return to Kingsman headquarters to retrieve a pill to treat his little brother Ryan's norovirus, an alert comes in from the South African Secret Service (SASS) regarding an encrypted message that was sent to a wanted hacker named Alias at Times Square in Manhattan. As the only agent present, Eggsy is sent out on a rocket to find Alias before the SASS.[1][5]

Upon finding him, Eggsy is confronted by Kwaito — a SASS agent, and Ingot — a Red Diamond agent. Upon restraining Alias, Alias explains that he was trying to shut down the servers in the financial district to protect them from a computer virus released by Ingot, who kills Alias and makes his escape, trapping Eggsy and Kwaito. Once he leaves, the virus is unleashed worldwide, causing a global blackout. The Prime Minister of Britain receives a Betamax tape from the head of the Red Diamond, self-made South African mining magnate Jakobis Du Preez, who explains his plans to replace the world's physical money with gold and jewels; in a separate tape, he invites the “Kings and Queens of the new material world” to a remote location in the Hunan Province, China.[6]

Eggsy and Kwaito independently go undercover to the event only for Du Preez to set off a bomb to get rid of "the competition". Retrieving a map to the Red Diamond base from Ingot and crashing into a forest with Kwaito, Eggsy and Kwaito make love. Later finding civilization and a phone to use, Eggsy finds Kwaito to have stolen the map. Having memorized it, Eggsy travels to Guam where he is reunited with Kwaito. Making their way inside the base, the pair find Du Preez on a hill of jewels and gold bars, who explains they cannot kill him lest a fail-safe he attached to his heart open the airlocks and kill everyone. After killing Ingot, Eggsy shoots Du Preez with a poisonous spy-dart which will slowly kill him, and makes his escape with Kwaito and Treeman, a hacker Du Preez had held captive, deleting the Red Diamond virus whilst fleeing. In the epilogue, a ceremony is held in Eggsy's honour. Several esteemed guests are invited—including Watson and Prince Philip, the latter of whom wants to apologise and shake Eggsy's hand. However, Eggsy instead takes his family and Kwaito to his favourite pub.[7]

Big Game

Eggsy returns in Big Game, where-in he rescues a mid-20s Mindy McCready from assassination at the hands of agents of the Fraternity of Super-Criminals (who plot to assassinate all the world's superheroes), with whom he then infiltrates the headquarters of to assassinate their leader, Wesley Gibson. However, after the couple are ambushed, Eggsy is shot in the head and killed, and Mindy steals the Fraternity's own stolen time machine to travel back in time, aiming to save Eggsy's life, only to end up in prehistoric times.[8]

In other media

Taron Egerton in-costume as Eggsy at San Diego Comic Con International in 2017.

The character appears in the 2015 film adaptation Kingsman: The Secret Service, and the 2017 sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle, portrayed by Taron Egerton as an adult and Alex Nikolov as a child. Prior to Egerton's casting, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, John Boyega, and Daniel Kaluuya were considered for the role;[9] Taylor-Johnson would go on to portray Kingsman co-founder Archie Reid / Galahad in the 2021 prequel film The King's Man, after being initially cast to portray a relative of Eggsy's.[10]

Film series

In The Secret Service, Gary Unwin, better known as "Eggsy", is an antisocial Chav who is recruited into Kingsman by Harry Hart. In the years since the death of his father, himself a former Kingsman agent who worked with Harry, Eggsy has fallen into delinquency. He excelled at gymnastics before pressure from his stepfather Dean forced him to quit. He dropped out of the Royal Marines due to his mother's fear of losing him like his father. Eggsy has a high I.Q. and exceptional driving skills, but his life of crime has prevented him from getting any job. Upon his entry into the Kingsman training program, Eggsy becomes the outcast, as the other candidates are well educated and come from wealthy families. He overcomes bullying from Charlie Hesketh and the other male trainees to become a finalist alongside Roxanne Morton; however, he ultimately loses when he fails the final test, which involves shooting his pet pug J.B. (which he named after Jack Bauer). Unknown to Eggsy, the gun was loaded with blanks. Upon discovering Richmond Valentine's plans to solve the world's overpopulation by unleashing a neurological wave broadcast to cause the world's poor to fight to the death, Harry is shot in the head point blank, and after Eggsy thwarts an attempt by Kingsman leader Arthur (loyal to Valentine) to kill him, Eggsy teams up with rogue agents Merlin and Roxy to stop Valentine from killing billions. Now a full Kingsman agent, Eggsy takes Harry's former codename of Galahad.[11]

In The Golden Circle, Eggsy has since inherited Harry's home and is in a relationship with Crown Princess Tilde of Sweden, who he saved during the Valentine incident. One night, he has dinner with the Royal Family of Sweden, which indirectly saves him from being killed along with all the other Kingsman agents in Britain in the hands of the Golden Circle. Eggsy and Merlin get help from the American spy organisation Statesman to figure out the Golden Circle's motives, only to discover that Harry is alive and has been under their care for over a year. Eggsy marries Princess Tilde after he and Harry save the world from the Golden Circle's virus outbreak.[12]

Eggsy will return in Kingsman: The Blue Blood.[13][14][15][16][17][18]

Short film

On July 20, 2017, Fox released an animated crossover short film between Kingsman and Archer, titled #TBT to That Time Archer Met Kingsman, featuring Eggsy and Sterling Archer.[19] The short was unveiled at the 2017 Comic-Con’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle panel in Hall H, following Eggsy as he discovers Archer to have stumbled into the Kingsman's secret arsenal hidden in the bespoke suit shop, helping himself to guns and alcohol. Fighting to reclaim the goods, Eggsy challenges Archer to "the most gentlemanly of competitions": a drinking contest, while planning to drug him via a glass; Archer instead drinks the bottle and passes out. Eggsy, insulted by Archer's behaviour, vows to go to America and "teach them a lesson". Taron Egerton reprises his role as Eggsy Unwin.[20]

Originally the marketing campaign for Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) was going to begin with a teaser short film featuring all six actors who portrayed James BondSean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig—discussing the need for a new generation of secret agents before Harry and Eggsy entered the room, symbolizing the passing of the torch to a new franchise of spy films. All of the actors agreed to appear and Matthew Vaughan agreed to shoot the scene, but the plans were shelved because Connery had become too ill with dementia by that time to participate.[21]

Video games

Eggsy Unwin appears as the main playable character in the 2017 turn-based match-3 role-playing combat game Kingsman: The Golden Circle by NHN PixelCube.[22][23] and the 2019 hybrid action adventure-construction simulator Kingsman: The Secret Service.[24][25]

Merchandise

In May 2017, Funko released Pop! Vinyl figures of Eggsy Unwin and several other Kingsman characters,[26] the Walmart Kingsman: The Golden Circle-themed exclusive gift set would comes with a Funko Pocket Pop! Eggsy keychain by November that year.[27] In September 2017, Titan Books published Kingsman: The Golden Circle: The Official Movie Novelization, a novelization of the 2017 film of the same name, written by Tim Waggoner and again featuring Eggsy as the main character.[28]

Reception

Reviewing Kingsman: The Red Diamond, Jesse Schedeen of IGN lauded "Eggsy's quest for legitimacy and happiness, goals that seem no more within his grasp than when he was simply another London punk [and how like] Daniel Craig's James Bond, there's a working class "chip on his shoulder" quality to Eggsy. Unlike Bond, Eggsy has a kind, ordinary humanity to him that makes him a very likable protagonist", further complimenting the overall "more grounded and character-driven approach" to his story as compared to the previous film adaptations' "bombast".[29]

Accolades

Accolades received by Kingsman: The Secret Service
Award Date of ceremony Category Film Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Empire Awards 29 March 2015 Best Male Newcomer Kingsman: The Secret Service Taron Egerton Won [30]
Saturn Awards 22 June 2016 Best Actor Nominated [31][32]
Teen Choice Awards 16 August 2015 Choice Movie: Breakout Star Nominated [33]

References

  1. Williams, Rob (w), Fraser, Simon (a). Kingsman: The Red Diamond #1. Image Comics (New York).
  2. Millar, Mark (w), Gibbons, Dave (a). Kingsman: The Secret Service #1. Marvel Comics (New York).
  3. Kit, Borys (4 December 2014). "'Secret Service' Comic Gets Movie Tie-In Cover (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
  4. "Feature: Kingsman: The Big Exit, By Rob Williams with Illustration by Özgür Yildirim — September 7, 2017 — Playboy — Entertainment for All". Archived from the original on 2017-09-22. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  5. Skrebels, Joe (21 June 2017). "Kingsman Comic Sequel Announced With New Creative Team". IGN. Retrieved 21 June 2017.
  6. Lealos, Shawn S. (1 January 2022). "The King's Man: 10 Comic Books You Should Read After Watching The Movie". Screen Rant. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  7. Williams, Rob (w), Fraser, Simon (a). Kingsman: The Red Diamond #6. Image Comics (New York).
  8. Tardive, Ambrose (30 September 2023). "Kingsman's Eggsy Just Died in Official Continuity (The Same Way As His Uncle Jack)". Screen Rant. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  9. Malhotra, Rahul (16 October 2023). "Matthew Vaughn's 'Kingsman' Almost Cast Daniel Kaluuya in the Lead Role". Collider. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  10. Murack, Kellen (4 June 2019). "Aaron Taylor-Johnson To Play A Relative Of Eggsy In 'The King's Man'". Full Circle Cinema. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  11. "Kingsman: The Secret Service Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 12, 2018.
  12. Ritman, Alex (29 March 2016). "'Kingsman: The Secret Service' Sequel Gets Title". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 April 2016.
  13. Travis, Ben; Hewitt, Chris (8 June 2018). "Kick-Ass Reboot and Kingsman Universe Coming from Matthew Vaughn's New Studio – EXCLUSIVE". Empire. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  14. Seddon, Dan; Sandwell, Ian (25 May 2019). "Exclusive: Kingsman 3 will tell "final chapter" of Harry and Eggsy relationship". Digital Spy. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  15. Parks, Adam (December 13, 2021). "Kingsman 3 Starts Filming in September (Exclusive)". ComicBook.com. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
  16. Jirak, Jamie (July 2, 2022). "Kingsman 3: Taron Egerton Says Sequel Starts Shooting Next Year". ComicBook.com. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
  17. Hermanns, Grant (15 October 2023). "Kingsman 3 Filming Start Window Finally Confirmed By Matthew Vaughn After 6-Year Wait". Screen Rant. Retrieved 15 October 2023.
  18. Tyrrell, Caitlin (17 October 2023). "Kingsman: The Blue Blood Plot Details Revealed By Mathhew Vaughn: "Imagine If That Purpose Disappears"". Screen Rant. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  19. Couch, Aaron; Kit, Borys (20 July 2017). "'Kingsman' Shows Off Action-Filled New Scenes at Comic-Con". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
  20. 20th Century Fox (20 July 2017). "#TBT to That Time Archer Met Kingsman". Archived from the original on 2021-11-08 via YouTube.
  21. Leston, Ryan (2022-04-21). "Kingsman Almost Got a Trailer That Included All Six James Bond Actors". IGN. Retrieved 2022-04-21.
  22. Chapple, Craig. "FoxNext Games and NHN Pixelcube partner for Kingsman mobile game". Pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  23. "Kingsman: The Golden Circle mobile game official website". NHN PixelCube. Archived from the original on 12 August 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  24. "Kingsman: The Secret Service game information". YesGnome. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  25. Ricchiuto, Madeline (29 April 2019). "Kingsman: The Secret Service: The Mobile Game Launches Wednesday". Bleeding Cool. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  26. Anderson, Kyle (30 May 2017). "Kingsman Funko Pops Are Suitably Weird and Cool". Nerdist Industries. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  27. "Kingsman: The Golden Circle — Exclusive Gift Set". Funko. 14 November 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  28. Waggoner, Tim (22 September 2017). "Kingsman: The Golden Circle: The Official Movie Novelization". Titan Books via Amazon.
  29. Schedeen, Jesse (7 September 2017). "Kingsman: The Red Diamond #1 Review". IGN. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
  30. Barraclough, Leo (30 March 2015). "Interstellar wins Film, Director at Empire Awards". Variety. Archived from the original on 12 March 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  31. Nakamura, Reid (24 February 2016). "Star Wars: The Force Awakens Leads Saturn Awards Nominees". TheWrap. Archived from the original on 21 March 2022. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  32. Cohen, David S. (23 June 2016). "The Force Awakens Rings Up Eight Saturn Awards". Variety. Archived from the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  33. "Teen Choice Awards 2015 Winners: Full List". Variety. 16 August 2015. Archived from the original on 9 January 2021. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
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