The production of the sequel of the “Kingdom” film has been decided. Hara Yasuhisa, the author of the original manga, will continue as the scriptwriter, and director Satou Shinsuke, Yamazaki Kento, Yoshizawa Ryou, and Hashimoto Kanna, will continue with their roles. Comments from Hara, Yamazaki, and Yoshizawa have arrived.
The film is based on “Kingdom”, which is serialized in “Weekly Young Jump” since Jan. 2006, and has 57 volumes of comics with over 64 million copies published in total.
Set in China's Spring and Autumn period and Warring States period, it tells the story of Xin, the war orphan who aims to become the greatest general, and Ying Zheng, the young king who aims to unify China, and later becomes Qin Shi Huang, on a grand scale.
The first live-action film was released on Apr. 19, 2019, and received over 5.73 billion JPY of box-office revenues. Fans have been longing for a sequel since the release of the first film, and Yamazaki, who played Xin, saying, “I want to play this role until Xin becomes a greater general,” shows the production side also being enthusiastic about the idea. This decision to make the sequel is full of the wishes of both fans and the production.
Yamazaki as Xin, Yoshizawa as Ying Zheng, and Hashimoto as He Liao Diao, will gather again with director Satou for the sequel. The author of the original manga, Hara, will also continue as the scriptwriter, and has added scenes and lines just for the film.
The release date, story, new cast, etc., of the sequel of the live-action “Kingdom” film, are yet to be decided. Let's look forward to further updates.
<Full comments are as below>
Comment from Yamazaki Kento
I felt the same way as Xin when we finished the shooting of the previous film. I was like “Our adventure has just begun, we still have a long way to go.”
The director and staff members all were talking about how great it would be if we could make a sequel, so I'm glad of this decision.
With Hara-sensei working on the script again, I am excited by this script, which is interesting as expected, both as a Kingdom fan and as an actor taking part in the film.
We, the cast and staff members, will do our best to show you how everyone has grown since the last film. Please look forward to the film that will be even more interesting than the prequel!
Yoshizawa Ryou
Playing Zheng in the film “Kingdom” was a turning point for my acting career. It made me want to grow along with him.
Since we all wanted to make a sequel even during the shooting of the first film, this decision of making the sequel and getting its script really made me happy.
Thanks to Hara-sensei working on the script again, the intriguing, inspiring story keeps the essence of the original, making it worth watching.
We as the actors are already excited just thinking about how we are going to portray this story in the film.
The cast and staff members are all doing our best to make a great piece of work that will blow all of your minds, so please look forward to it!
Author Hara Yasuhisa
The production of the sequel of the live-action “Kingdom” film has been decided!
This decision is thanks to the fact that more people than I expected, watched the last film.
Thank you very much!
I had the pleasure to be part of the very long conferences about the script. Wang Qi told Xin, “I'll meet you on the battlefield.” The sequel will be portraying that battlefield.
The battlefield and drama on a greater scale than the previous film will go down in Japanese film history, and I think you will all enjoy it.
There's still a ways to go to the release, but I hope you all will look forward to it.
(C)Hara Yasuhisa / Shueisha (C)2019 “Kingdom” The Movie Production Committee
