After three years, a $200 million budget and no less than 2,640 people listed on the end credits, “Argylle” finally opens — and director Matthew Vaughn is a wreck.

“This is the worst time of being a film director, the three or four days before it opens. Because,” Vaughn said from London last week, “you just never ever know how it’s going to do. It’s terrifying. It gets even weirder when people start saying they like it because if it doesn’t do well, it’s all my fault. If it does do well, I had nothing to do with it.”

A proven hitmaker with “The Kingsman” series, Vaughn, 52, made this monumental spectacle in a field because no adequate studio existed.

“Argylle” is both a lavish send-up of spies and their many movies and the real deal, shot under strenuous COVID restrictions in the UK. “We came up with the idea of making the movie during lockdown when the world was gloomy.  It did start off more contained and then the more I got under the hood I just had more and more ideas and wanted to explore some ‘feminine action.’

“To do that it got bigger and bigger and bigger. Under very weird circumstances. Because we all had to be wearing masks. Catherine O’Hara told me at last week’s premiere, that it was the first time she had seen my face.”

The cast is led by Bryce Dallas Howard and Sam Rockwell, alongside Dua Lipa, Henry Cavill, John Cena and Alfie, a scene-stealing cat.

A cat as a key player, Vaughn quickly discovered, is more than tricky.  “It was a bizarre moment for me when we had a real cat. On the first day, I’m going to let you into a secret: the acting cat can’t act.”

After multiple, fruitless takes making for long delays, “It was incredibly expensive. I was, ‘We’re going to have to save some money here.’ So I went to my daughter’s bedroom and said we need the cat at work. For three months on the set it was quite magical — because so much of it is real.

“I mean, obviously we’re not having him thrown off buildings to put him in danger. But it’s cool, these really wonderful dramatic moments we got, because he was so relaxed. I could just put him in front of the camera and he’d look at me and would just be, ‘Yeah, whatever. Must be my new home.’

“I’m a Dog Person with a capital D, which I still am. But it’s my daughter’s cat and by the end of the movie, I became a cat person.”