Director Matthew Vaughn was shocked by the “vitriolic” reviews of his movie Argylle.

The spy comedy, which starred Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell, was widely panned by critics upon its release in February and went on to make less than half of its budget back at the cinemas, potentially scuppering Vaughn’s plan to make more instalments.

In an interview with Empire magazine, the Kick-Ass director admitted he didn’t expect such a negative response because test screenings had gone “fantastically well”.

“My guard came down on Argylle,” he shared. “It’s a fun, feel-good movie, or I thought it was a fun, feel-good movie. We didn’t make Citizen Kane, but f**king hell, then the reviews came out and I’m like, ‘Wait, what have I done to offend these people?’ They were vitriolic. I’m not saying the movie’s perfect by any means, but I didn’t think it was offensive. That took me by surprise.”

After being “rattled” by the reviews, the Kingsman filmmaker went out of his way to figure out why his movie didn’t go down well.

“I even went round to cinemas because I thought, ‘Maybe I’ve lost the plot now,” he confessed. “I’m genuinely scratching my head about that, because you can’t ignore it. It wasn’t like (just) a few bad reviews.”

Vaughn still hopes to make another instalment, noting that Argylle has been “doing very well” on Apple TV+ since it started streaming in April.

“People are liking it. Nothing would make me happier than making another one. I’m getting texts saying, ‘Wow, those reviews were f**king harsh!’ The more we can get people to watch Argylle, the more chance we make another one,” he stated.

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