Kingsman to Apex: A look at Taron Egerton’s slow transition from hero to villain
All my loyal Miss Flicks readers will know I’ve been a huge fan of Taron Egerton ever since he burst onto the scene in Kingsman: The Secret Service 11 years ago.
I’ve seen every film and TV show he’s been in since then (except Billionaire Boys Club, for Kevin Spacey reasons), and I’m fascinated by his recent transition to baddie – most obviously in the new Netflix thriller Apex – and thought it was the perfect time to break down his trajectory from hero to villain.
*Spoilers ahead, proceed with caution*
Egerton has made a name for himself playing good guys, whether that’s the chav-turned-secret agent Eggsy in the Kingsman franchise, lovable fool Eddie Edwards in Eddie the Eagle, the actual Robin Hood, or music legend Elton John in Rocketman (probably his best performance to date). He’s also voiced a sweet gorilla in the Sing animated franchise and recently played an airport agent with a heart of gold in the brilliant 2024 thriller Carry-On.
But things got more interesting with the 2022 miniseries Black Bird, in which he played an imprisoned criminal tasked with going undercover to befriend and get information from a serial killer. And he was even more interesting again with the underrated and criminally underseen She Rides Shotgun, in which he portrayed Nate, who is accused of killing his ex and her new partner after being released from prison. This was his most complex character yet, someone who had nuance and occupied a morally grey space. Even though he did bad things, you rooted for him and his daughter anyway. I didn’t expect to cry at this film, but his on-screen relationship with his daughter (played by Ana Sophia Heger) broke me at the end. (Seriously, please watch She Rides Shotgun, it’s on Prime Video now).
*Major spoilers for Smoke and Apex below*
After playing these dubious characters – who still had redeeming qualities – he went even darker in the Apple TV series Smoke. He portrayed an arson investigator who is eventually revealed to be the arsonist he’s been chasing. Dave was also a very sad, lonely and pathetic person and marked the first time an Egerton character gave me the ick!
So the pivot had been slowly coming. But he took it to a whole new level in Apex, in which he plays a sadistic serial killer named Ben who gets pleasure out of hunting and killing tourists in the Australian wilderness. If that’s not enough, he’s also a cannibal who turns human meat into jerky to sell back to the next tourists! I will never be able to unsee him with his freaky pointed teeth. Thankfully, we only get a brief shot of that nightmare fuel! This is the first time he’s played an obvious, unapologetic, one-note villain. I never expected him to go quite that far on the villain scale, but he does a great job. It gave me mixed feelings seeing my celeb crush in such a role tbh.
Egerton is not the first Hollywood hero to break bad on screen and play against type, to prove that they’re more versatile than we’ve been led to believe. Chris Hemsworth in Furiosa is a recent example, but there’s also been action hero Tom Cruise in Collateral, former Batman Christian Bale in Thor: Love and Thunder, Denzel Washington in Training Day and Han Solo/Indiana Jones himself Harrison Ford in What Lies Beneath (the list is endless).
Now that Egerton has broken out of the good guy mould and proven that he wants to sink his teeth into complex, questionable characters, it’ll be interesting to see what we’ll get from him in his upcoming films Everybody Wants to Fuck Me and Kockroach. Perhaps the pendulum will swing back the other way, but I’m liking this new terrain where we’re not sure what to expect from Egerton anymore. Although I’ll never say no to another outing with Eggsy!
Apex and Carry On are streaming on Netflix, She Rides Shotgun is on Prime Video and Black Bird and Smoke are on Apple TV