In Bond 25, the next installment in the long-running James Bond franchise, Captain Marvel's Lashana Lynch will reportedly be assuming 007's license to kill. However while Lynch's character will hold the 007 agent number, she's not playing the character of James Bond himself. That role remains with Daniel Craig, who's played the iconic British secret agent in the most recent four Bond films.
When Craig announced that he'd be hanging up his Walther PPK after Bond 25, speculation began swirling around what kind of person might be next tapped to step into the role and continue the venerable series. It's been wondered about since even before the announcement of his impending retirement, especially the question of if the next actor to take over leading the franchise would be a woman rather than a man, or be a non-white performer.
A Bond 25 production insider reportedly told UK's The Daily Mail that the film opens with Craig's Bond retired, while back at the MI6 offices, agency director M welcomes 007 into her office, and Lynch enters the room in response. The insider commented that, "Bond, of course, is sexually attracted to the new female 007 and tries his usual seduction tricks, but is baffled when they don't work on a brilliant, young black woman who basically rolls her eyes at him and has no interest in jumping into his bed. Well, certainly not at the beginning."
It's unclear how much Lynch's character of Nomi is as it was in the original version of the Bond 25 script, as BBC's creator and star of Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, at the request of Craig himself, was brought in as a script doctor to help do a polish as well as to make sure that the franchise evolves with the times. When asked during a previous interview if Bond was still a relevant character in the modern 21st century era, Waller-Bridge said, "I think he's absolutely relevant now. [The franchise] has just got to grow. It has just got to evolve, and the important thing is that the film treats the women properly. He doesn't have to. He needs to be true to his character."
It seems that Bond 25 is striving to find its balance between the classic Bond stories and villains, as we've seen with the news of the character of Blofeld returning to the big screen, and more contemporary gender perspectives. The insider commented that within the Bond production offices, the term Bond Girls is no longer being used, but rather Bond Women. It'll be a classic Bond, finding his way through a world with women fighting alongside him rather than hiding behind him.
Source: The Daily Mail
