Once upon a time, Guy Ritchie (THE GENTLEMEN) dreamed a dream of a KING ARTHUR franchise, but alas, it was not to be. Despite an impressive cast, which included Charlie Hunnam, Jude Law, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Djimon Hounsou, Aidan Gillen, and Eric Bana, as well as a $175 million budget, KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD unfortunately found itself to be a critical and commercial disappointment.
Before its release, KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD was expected to be the first of a six-film franchise, and those plans were obviously cancelled after it bombed at the box-office, but one actor is hoping for a redo. While speaking on SiriusXM's Radio Andy with Andy Cohen, Charlie Hunnam confessed his wish to give KING ARTHUR another shot.
I’d like to go back to King Arthur because there’s a lot of things went wrong during that and a lot of things that were out of our control. I just don’t think we ended up matching the aspiration — we just didn’t quite make the movie we wanted. The idea was that if it was a success, we would’ve made several of those films, and I’m really captivated by the Arthurian legends and I just feel like we really missed an opportunity to tell a long-form story.
Hunnam went on to add that the film's major problem had to do with "a piece of miscasting that ended up crippling the central story line. It’s actually not in the film anymore." Naturally, Hunnam wasn't about to name names, but we already know that a great deal of the film wound up on the cutting room floor. Despite the failure of KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD, the film still has its fans, including our own Alex Maidy, who went to bat for it during an installment of The UnPopular Opinion column.
Charlie Hunnam will next be seen in THE GENTLEMEN, Guy Ritchie's new film which follows American expat Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey), who built a highly profitable marijuana empire in London. When word gets out that he’s looking to cash out of the business forever it triggers plots, schemes, bribery and blackmail in an attempt to steal his domain out from under him. THE GENTLEMEN is slated to hit theaters in the U.S. on January 24th.