“What did I do to offend these people?”

At the very beginning, Argylle was teased by Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service) as a possible James Bond replacement with Henry Cavill (The Witcher). After the film was first released in cinemas and then on Apple TV+, it quickly became clear that we were dealing with have to do with a completely different film. Cavill is only a supporting character with hardly any screen time, while Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World) is the focus of the plot as a book author.

Argylle was received with scathing criticism by many, which Vaughn sometimes finds too harsh. In a new interview, he has now explained his view of things in more detail.

But no James Bond with Henry Cavill: Matthew Vaughn finds Argylle criticism partly too harsh

In an interview with Empire, the director explains that Argylle was not intended to be a significant work in film history. However, he cannot understand the criticism, some of which is extremely negative or even dismayed:

[Argylle] is a funny feel-good movie, or at least I thought it was a funny feel-good movie. We didn’t make Citizen Kane, of course, but damn it, then the reviews came out and I was like: ‘Wait, what did I do to offend these people?’ They were toxic. I’m not saying the film is perfect, but I didn’t find it offensive. That surprised me.

Since Argylle was primarily shot as a streaming film for Apple TV+, the financial result is not that important. Worldwide, the blockbuster grossed just over $96 million, according to Box Office Mojo. A weak resultbecause Vaughn’s film is said to have had a budget of up to 200 million dollars.

Watch the German Argylle trailer here:

You can watch Argylle at any time with the Apple TV+ streaming subscription. It is questionable whether the film will lead to a larger franchise after the largely negative reception.

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