The Future of Bond Post-Daniel Craig

Bond, James Bond. This iconic introduction from James Bond has been burned into the minds of millions of fans across the globe for the past several decades with six actors so far having undertaken the role of 007 to date. The latest actor to take on the role of Bond is Daniel Craig who with the release of No Time To Die hopefully this coming April, will have played Mr. Bond for an impressive and record-breaking 15 years, that’s three whole years longer than Roger Moore even though Roger Moore was in seven films and Daniel Craig’s final Bond film will be his fifth portrayal of the character. Daniel Craig’s tenure as Bond is coming to a close with No Time To Die, but the James Bond franchise will surely continue for decades to come and the possibilities are not limited in the least. 

Post-Daniel Craig the Series Should Reboot

Daniel Craig’s Bond has had the most serialized storyline of all the Bonds to date no doubt as his first outing as the secret agent in Casino Royale found Bond undertaking his first mission as a double-0, and 15 years later in No Time To Die his Bond will be returning to the field after a five year-long retirement. The franchise has been rebooted before with Casino Royale (2006) essentially resetting the timeline after Pierce Brosnan’s Die Another Day (2002). The first 20 films in the franchise from Dr. No (1962) to Die Another Day were all set in the same timeline despite the character being portrayed by five different men. The evidence behind this line of reasoning is that they all shared a common storyline with James Bond’s wife Tracy who was murdered at the end of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969). On Her Majesty’s Secret Service went to great lengths to stress that the character George Lazenby was portraying was the same one as portrayed by Sean Connery in his first five films. This included a visit to James Bond’s office with a recording of the Jamaican music famously featured in Dr. No to the inclusion of the same supporting cast including M and Moneypenny as used in the Connery films. The events of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service saw James Bond fall in love with the Bond girl Tracy Draco who he marries at the end of the film. James Bond is happily married and sets off for a new lifestyle away from the spy game until Blofeld brutally murders his wife in cold blood. Diamonds are Forever (1971) despite seeing the return of Sean Connery to the role began with 007’s pursuit of revenge against Blofeld for murdering his wife. Roger Moore’s Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) turned cold and sullen when conversing with the Bond girl of that picture Anya Amasova who demonstrates that she has done her homework on him and knows of his past with women including his tragic marriage. Roger Moore took his revenge on Blofeld at the beginning of For Your Eyes Only (1981) after visiting the grave of his wife. Furthermore, Timothy Dalton’s Bond in License to Kill (1989) attends the wedding of his long-time CIA alley Felix Leiter and is thrown a wedding garter by Leiter’s bride who teases Bond will be next to be married but Bond reflects on the memory of his dead wife in pain and then leaves. Pierce Brosnan’s Bond also referred to his dead wife though indirectly when Sean Bean as 006 in GoldenEye (1995) accused Bond of being haunted by the memory of so many dead women and then in The World is Not Enough (1999) Elektra King asked Bond if he lost somebody close to him as they set out to snow ski in mountainous terrain which Bond was reluctant to answer. All this evidence clearly emphasizes that Bond was the same character for the first 20 films. The argument can be made that each time a new actor took over the role the franchise sort of had a soft reboot as each actor played a very different version of the character from the previous actor however the timeline was still one unified timeline. Casino Royale changed all that by taking Bond back to his early 007 days and the reason it is not a prequel to Dr. No but a reboot besides being set in modern day is the fact that M played by Judi Dench is present with no sign of a male M and the set of events that transpire during Bond’s career during the Craig era are very different from that of the Connery-Brosnan era. Daniel Craig’s Bond started as an M16 agent who had only recently been granted a license to kill to by the time of Skyfall (2012) six years later being a burned-out experienced agent in need of a symbolic rebirth, to uncovering the shadowy organization SPECTRE in the sequel headed by Blofeld who in this timeline is his foster brother to Craig’s swan song tale with No Time To Die which will see Bond coming out of retirement for one more mission. The most logical place for the Bond franchise to go after No Time To Die would be for the Bond timeline to be reset again ala Casino Royale. To continue the timeline of the Craig era after Craig leaves would severely hamper the storyline as Bond won’t be present without Daniel Craig and bringing in a new 007 that isn’t James Bond would depart from the spirit of the classic 007 movies and the 007 novels by Ian Fleming that chronicled the adventures of one extraordinary man. After No Time To Die the next Bond film should be a reboot that brings in a new thirty-something actor to play James Bond and the supporting cast including M, Moneypenny, and Q, currently portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and Ben Wishaw should all be recast with fresh faces to help distinguish the Craig era films from the new wave of Bond films to come. 

  The Chance for a Variety of Stories To Be Told

As the Bond films move forward it would be wise of the producers behind the scenes to mix up the storytelling and to make sure they are telling a variety of stories with the 007 character. A lot of the older films while great followed a similar formula and to prevent the franchise from losing steam the producers should make sure the writers are penning original concepts. I am not suggesting at all that the classic 007 elements should be forgone especially since a lot of those elements have been ignored during the Craig films but rather they should be present with a mix of new elements. In addition to the spy mission storyline of a Bond picture espionage and mystery storytelling could be emphasized to harken back to the days of Connery’s films and Ian Fleming’s novels when the story was focused on the investigate nature of spy work and not blockbuster action. Blockbuster thrills will always be present in modern Bond films for sure but they shouldn’t be the only elements of a Bond picture. James Bond is a Commander in the British Navy and while the classic films would show Bond in uniform every once in a while the Craig films shied away from this backstory element of Bond and the new movies should reemphasize this fact and use it to their advantage and as an opportunity for Bond to conduct military operations in a special operations capacity for his missions. This could afford the opportunity to see a story with a variety of Bond being in a tux on a classy mission and Bond wading the waters of terrorism while commanding British Navy military agents. The international scope of Bond is a classic element of the franchise but there is a lot of potential to be mined from field missions in London, Bond’s home base and the writers would be smart to utilize London to its full potential. Terrorists are the chief villains of the Bond franchise in the post-Cold War era and they will surely continue to be a big factor moving forward but an emphasis on different kinds of villains may be interesting with powerful crime syndicates and dangerous arms dealers and such being possible interesting alternatives to explore to allow for a variety of storytelling. The possibilities are endless and if the producers and writers can allow the for the classic 007 elements including Bond playing poker at a casino, romancing the girl, high-speed car chases, etc. along with a new slew of possible storytelling elements the franchise could find a lot of legs in itself. The scope of Bond’s missions doesn’t have to be narrow they could include anything from big-budget action scenes to Connery style espionage investigations and that could provide for fascinating onscreen stories. 

 Serialized Storytelling 

One of the most exciting narrative devices of the Connery films was the serialized SPECTRE storyline in which James Bond film after film went up against agents of SPECTRE with the head of the organization Blofeld remaining in the shadows until Bond finally came face to face with him in You Only Live Twice (1967). Blofeld would go on to murder his wife and then after Bond’s revenge quest against him failed hatched another scheme involving diamonds. The end of the SPECTRE storyline was a bit anti-climatic at least until Roger Moore’s explosive helicopter action scene fueled revenge against Blofeld at the beginning of For Your Eyes Only in the early 80s. However in the 60s at the height of Connery’s tenure as Bond SPECTRE was this mysterious and dangerous opponent to Bond and as Bond continued to foil the organizations’ plans, and seduce their women he became a legendary opponent in SPECTRE’s eyes as Bond’s name was well-known to them which made subsequent Bond villains very familiar with James Bond which led to M16 having to fake Bond’s death at the beginning of You Only Live Twice to pull the wool over SPECTRE’s eyes. The Bond films didn’t continue in a serialized path post-Sean Connery and it wasn’t until Daniel Craig’s films that serialized storytelling became a focus again. Moving forward Bond should continue to incorporate serialized storytelling in the spirit of Connery’s films but a lesson should also be learned from the MCU. Disney’s MCU has had a lot of success in telling long-form storylines and they had an epic finale to an 11 year story arc which they delivered in Avengers: Endgame (2019). I’m not suggesting Bond should start setting up spin-offs but the benefits of serialized storytelling are very apparent at the box office and the Broccolis would be smart to utilize storytelling in a long-form fashion. The storyline could involve SPECTRE or it could be a completely new plot. One of Connery’s gripes about playing Bond was that he started to grow bored of the role as the writers never made any effort to have the character change or grow over time and that is something that the new films should keep in mind. Bond should have a character arc over the long-term and it doesn’t mean Bond has to grow soft or deviate entirely from his character but rather he can undergo transformational change without losing the core of his character. This could be done in a lot of interesting ways including having Bond come to terms with his parent’s deaths, unresolved issues from his childhood and military days, and so forth. The actors that play Bond moving forward would be more inclined to stick around for the long-haul if they know their character is growing and changing over time in interesting and intellectually fascinating ways. One of the most neglected parts of Bond’s life in the movies is his personal life as we hardly ever get to see him at home and never see any of his friends in London or even see the scope of his cover job at Universal Exports to those who know him. It would be great to see a new cast of supporting characters moving forward made up of Bond’s close friends and even recurring girlfriends. It is a tradition for Bond to have a new girl in every movie and that is one tradition that is being broken by No Time To Die. The story demands it in No Time To Die with Bond potentially dealing with marriage in that storyline but I think returning girlfriends could make for great story material in the future. In the original timeline, we only saw one woman from Bond’s past in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) played by Teri Hatcher. The conflict between Pierce Brosnan’s Bond and Hatcher was a fresh dynamic as before that we always saw Bond meeting a new woman or women in every adventure. There are two exceptions with one being Sylvia Trench who was the first woman to ever meet Bond onscreen in Bond’s classic introduction onscreen while playing poker. She returned in From Russia With Love (1963) on a picnic date with Bond before he was called in to be briefed on a mission. The Man with The Golden Gun (1974) saw Bond meeting up with Mary Goodnight, Bond’s assistant who had worked with Bond in the field on a previous occasion not seen onscreen. In the future seeing Bond with love interests who show up for more than just one Bond movie would provide a level of excitement in seeing a relationship build between Bond and the love interests over time. Traditionally Bond is supposed to move on to new women and not look back as that is part of the fantasy of the man who isn’t married and lives a life of adventure but the storytelling can adapt to tell more of a Timothy Dalton esque story since Timothy Dalton’s version of Bond was more of a one-woman man and whether the next Bond actor portrays Bond as a one-woman man or not Bond can still have the depth especially as he evolves with a character arc to continue evolving relationships with various girlfriends as they return every once in a while in a similar vein to that of a Felix Leiter appearance or a major role in the story being told while Bond continues to meet new Bond girls on his missions over time as well. A variety of women in Bond’s life can only make matters more exciting for the character and the question of whether any of these recurring Bond girls would become a serious love interest in the spirit of a will they won’t they TV romance is a question the Broccolis can explore especially as they incorporate strong actresses like Teri Hatcher. The possibilities to further the character allow for both a chance to provide exciting suspenseful storytelling to the audience and the opportunity to further the character of the next Bond whoever that may be. 

 Henry Cavill as the Next 007

James Bond will need to be recast after Daniel Craig and there is no doubt the Broccoli's will do an extensive search across the globe for the right man for the role. However past history in the Bond franchise gives precedent to suggest who may end up being the next Bond. Roger Moore was considered for Bond in Dr. No but he was too busy doing The Saint on TV but they came back around to him 11 years later for Live and Let Die. Timothy Dalton was approached to play Bond when he was in his early twenties for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service but he explained to the producers that he thought he was much too young to play the role at the time and 18 years later he played Bond for the first time in The Living Daylights (1987) at the age of 41. Pierce Brosnan was originally supposed to play Bond in The Living Daylights until his TV show Remington Steele got renewed at the last minute but the producers circled back around to him eight years later for GoldenEye. When casting was going on for Casino Royale the final two contenders for the role were Daniel Craig and Henry Cavill. Henry Cavill is famous for playing Superman but long before he won the role of the man of steel he was famous for being very unlucky in the casting process as he was in contention for a lot of big franchise roles but never managed to get the big role for a very long time till Man of Steel (2013). Martin Campbell directed Casino Royale and his top choice for Bond was Henry Cavill but the Broccolis wanted somebody older as Henry Cavill was in his early twenties at the time and Daniel Craig was in his late thirties so they went with the latter. If history has taught us anything it’s that the Broccolis have a history of going back to actors they previously considered for the role of Bond and casting them. Henry Cavill very well could be the next James Bond as he is only 37 right now and if the next Bond film after No Time To Die comes out by 2023 he will only be 40 and Roger Moore was 45 when he started as Bond in Live and Let Die. The one obstacle that could prevent this from happening is the fact that Henry Cavill is attached to other franchises with Superman and the Witcher. The question of whether Henry Cavill will return to play Superman is one that is still up in the air but he has expressed a strong desire to return as the character and there are rumors circulating that he will be coming back as Superman in the near future. Henry Cavill is also busy in the massively popular Netflix TV show The Witcher and so Henry Cavill’s packed schedule could be an obstacle to him being able to play Bond. Even if he could find time to play Superman, the Witcher, and Bond all at the same time there is also the question of whether the Broccolis would want an actor as Bond who is already well known as Superman as traditionally the Broccolis have favored actors who aren’t highly associated with another role as they want people to think of the actor playing Bond as Bond versus another character. But Roger Moore was Simon Templar in The Saint before the played Bond and Pierce Brosnan was famous for Remington Steele before he played Bond so the door is open for the Broccolis to let the Man of Steel star take on the role of Bond if they want to and if Henry Cavill has time. Assuming it all works out and Henry Cavil is the next James Bond he is an excellent choice for the role as he has proved his action chops in Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) playing the villain opposite Tom Cruise but he has also proven he is a charismatic star in the severely underrated film The Man From Uncle (2015). Henry Cavill played Napoleon Solo and the charisma Henry Cavill pulled off was so effortless and felt very James Bond. Henry Cavill noted The Man from Uncle was more of an action- comedy and if he got the chance to play Bond he would of course incorporate humor because humor has always will be a part of Bond but he would bring a degree of seriousness and depth to the character that is necessary. Henry Cavill has turned out a lot of dramatic performances including his turn as Superman in Man of Steel and so I do not doubt that Henry Cavill is capable of playing a charismatic but yet cold and deadly James Bond. Henry Cavill even got his feet wet in the action stunt world as he did as many of his own stunts that Tom Cruise would allow and it seems like Henry Cavill is eager to carry on that practice in the future. Henry Cavill taking after Tom Cruise and bringing that kind of sense of realism to the action side of the Bond franchise would be invigorating and bring new energy to the series. 

 Final Thoughts

James Bond has been playing on the big screen for nearly six decades and there is no doubt he will continue to play on the big screen for another six decades. For that to happen though the Broccolis need to take steps to keep the franchise fresh and allow for a variety of storytelling while also complicating the character of Bond and evolving him in fascinating ways. As Bond is recast Henry Cavill would be a prime candidate to be the seventh actor to portray 007 and as the series continues to move forward the possibilities for what kinds of stories can be told with the 007 character aren’t limited to the standard terrorism plot with everything from 60s style espionage in the spirit of the original Connery Bond films and 60s spy TV shows like Mission Impossible to high stakes military ops to classic Bond style black tie missions or even something as offbeat as Bond aiding a friend in London who has been blackmailed by an arms dealer being on the table proving the future of the Bond franchise is limitless.