by: S. Scott Stanikmas – Senior Staff Writer

It looks like FOX is getting serious about the sequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service. First they pull rank and nab Taron Egerton from Lionsgate so that he can film the next chapter in the life of British spy Eggsy, and now they plant their flag and give the movie an official release date.

Box Offcie Mojo got the scoop that Kingsman 2 will drop into theaters on June 16, 2017. So far the only other big film on that day is Cars 3, so it’s clear sailing for the bound-to-be-R-rated flick.

Egerton was originally supposed to start filming in Lionsgate’s Robin Hood origin film in early 2016 but FOX snatched him up due to contractual obligations. Now he’ll do the Kingsman sequel in the spring and jump right into the Robin Hood film in the summer.

Director Matthew Vaughn is hard at work on the script, but there is still no word on if he’ll return to helm this film.

The original Kingsman drew $413M worldwide, far surpassing its $80M budget making a sequel a forgone conclusion.

No other stars have signed on for the film yet. The only Kingsman that were left standing at the end of the first film were Egerton, Mark Strong and Sophie Cookson. For what it’s worth, Mark Millar (writer of the comic book the film is sourced from) wouldn’t mind seeing Colin Firth come back, although given his present state of DEAD at the end of the first film that may be a little tough to pull off.