Every change in real life history
Although set during World War I, The king’s man makes notable changes to the real-life story. For a franchise that stars an unseen intelligence agency and has made a name for itself as overblown, the fact that it isn’t historically accurate comes as no surprise. However, it is interesting to note that many of the events and people featured in The king’s man are actually based on true stories.
As depicted in king’s man, World War I took place in 1914-1918 and involved several major European countries. Events like the real-life assassination The king’s man the character of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, late US involvement, Lenin’s revolution in Russia, and the double abdication/execution of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsar Nicholas II at the end of WWI are also true – and are represented with a decent degree of accuracy in The king’s man. A few small discrepancies occur, such as the fact that Gavrilo Princip, who killed the Archduke, was not the same man who once attempted his life using a bomb, as shown in the film. Overall, however, The king’s man checks a lot of boxes when it comes to showcasing the real players and conflicts of World War I.
The king’s man is part of a fictional franchise, so it takes some key liberties with the story. As well as including many Easter eggs and references to Kingsman, the film also establishes the origins of its fictional eponymous secret service agency by inserting them (and their enemies) into numerous events of World War I. Here’s every major change The king’s man fact to real history.
Shepherd and his evil organization are fictional
The main antagonists of king’s man, Shepherd and his evil organization are completely fictional. It’s not uncommon for spy thrillers to feature a mysterious antagonist commanding henchmen to drive the conflict, but no real World War I equivalent exists. The Great War was the result of several longstanding and interconnected conflicts and alliances, and cannot be attributed to the actions of a single person or group as in The king’s man. So the vengeful Scotsman Morton/Shepherd and his gaggle of political saboteurs are made up, as are the villains of Kingsman: The Golden Circle and Kingsman: The Secret Service. That said, each named member of the evil organization is based on a real person, even though they’ve never gotten along and probably never met in real life.
Rasputin was murdered by Russians, not Brits
One of The king’s manThe best aspects of is its outrageous portrayal of Grigory Rasputin, whose real-life story is almost equally bizarre. In real life, Rasputin was a self-proclaimed holy man and healer who won favor with the Russian royal family and most likely manipulated them. Her macabre appearance, borderline nymphomania, fearsome healing practices, and high poison tolerance are all characteristics that The king’s man plays, but which matches the rumors and facts of Rasputin’s time. Due to its weirdness, the movie probably should have kept Rasputin as The king’s manthe main villain.
Rasputin’s actual assassination happened almost exactly as The king’s man shows it, except for one crucial detail. According to the account of his real killer, the Russian nobleman Felix Yusupov, Rasputin received poisoned cakes, to which he showed no reaction, a bullet in the chest, after which he came back to life and attacked his killers, and finally a bullet in the head. and discharged into the Malaya Nevka River. The king’s man touches on all of these details, but the murder is committed by the fledgling Kingsman Agency rather than Yusupov and his co-conspirators Dmitri Pavlovich and Vladimir Purishkevich. Although there is a theory about British involvement in Rasputin’s death, it has been widely discredited by historians.
Zimmerman’s telegram was not decoded by a civilian
the Kingsman the franchise is notorious for being male-dominated, and the prequel is no exception, with The king’s manThe cast of characters features only one supporting female character, Polly, aka Galahad. Although constantly sidelined, Polly makes a crucial contribution to Shepherd’s defeat, as she decodes the telegram sent from Germany to Mexico encouraging the latter to invade the United States. This telegram, known as the Zimmerman Telegram, was a key factor in the real First World War, as was its decoding, which helped secure US involvement in the war. Similarly, the concern for the authenticity of the telegram once decoded was a real problem in 1917, which The king’s man addresses.
What is fictional, however, is the involvement of private individuals in the decoding of the Telegram and the means by which it was ultimately proven to be authentic. In reality, it was Nigel de Grey, a member of the British intelligence agency Room 40, who cracked the Zimmerman Telegram, rather than Taron Egerton’s fictional predecessor. Kingsman character. To prove that the contents of the Zimmerman Telegram were real, the British government obtained various copies directly from Mexico, rather than from a German spy on the Western Front, as the story goes. The king’s man.
Erik Jan Hanussen advised another German leader
Besides Rasputin, the real historical figure Erik Jan Hanussen also figures in The king’s man, but much less precisely. In the film, he’s played by Daniel Brühl, who audiences likely recognize as the MCU’s Baron Zemo. Hanussen is described as a close adviser to Kaiser Wilhelm II, but this actually places him too early in German history. The real Hanussen was an Austrian Jewish mentalist who advised not the Kaiser, but Adolf Hitler. Specifically, Hanussen appears to have taught a young Hitler psychology, performance, and crowd control to dramatic effect. The king’s manThe end credits scene with Hitler establishes this connection, but when it comes to the film itself, Hanussen’s closeness to Kaiser Wilhelm is a major historical shift.
President Wilson was never seduced or blackmailed
Like Hanussen, Valerie Pachner’s Mata Hari is named after a real character but significantly altered for the purposes of The king’s manthe story. The real Mata Hari was a Dutch entertainer/courtesan who acted as a spy for France but was later executed there after a failed attempt to seduce Kaiser Wilhelm’s son for information. In the film, Hari succeeds in carrying out this mission on President Woodrow Wilson instead, using footage of their sexual encounter to blackmail him into staying out of the war. Although Wilson and the United States did indeed stay out of World War I for a long time, this was due to Wilson’s pacifism and resolute American neutrality. The Mata Hari scandal is therefore one of the biggest changes in real life history that occurs towards the end of The king’s mansince it strays so far from the real story.
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