The WWI Trench Warfare Episode
A swapped identity and a mission into no man's land in The King's Man.
The First World War trench sequence belongs to The King's Man, the 2021 prequel. Conrad, the son of Orlando, Duke of Oxford, is commissioned into the Grenadier Guards against his father's wishes, and King George V arranges for him to be assigned to London. Determined to fight, he swaps places with the Scottish soldier Archie Reid.
Lore & Background
Disguised as Archie, a member of the Black Watch, Conrad volunteers for a mission into no man's land to bring back information from a wounded British agent. On his return a fellow soldier who knows the real Archie accuses him of being a German spy and shoots him dead, which devastates Orlando. What Conrad brought back confirms that the Zimmermann Telegram is authentic.
Reader's Guide
Before the swap Conrad gives Archie the nickname "Lancelot" as a message to his father. After the war Orlando buys the Kingsman Tailor Shop as a front, and Archie is among those who form the original Kingsman agency, each taking a codename from the King Arthur legend in Conrad's honour. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Archie Reid, the founding Lancelot.
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