The James Bond franchise has revealed that earlier villains used to work for Bond’s employer MI6 more than once, and the twist deserves to make a comeback in Bond 26. Now that Daniel Craig’s tenure as James Bond has ended, the series needs to recapture its sense of fun and adventure. No Time To Die’s Paloma proved the franchise can balance grounded action with fun, escapist elements, something that Bond badly needs after the self-serious tone of earlier Craig outings. Reintroducing an established and successful twist formula is the perfect way to do this.
Fortunately, this is not the first time that 007 has needed a tonal makeover between franchise installments. There are a pair of earlier Bond movies that used a familiar twist to reignite interest in the character and both succeeded, meaning that the charismatic super-spy’s next screen outing should do the same. Both Skyfall and Goldeneye, the two earlier Bond movies that revealed that their villains were former allies of Bond’s employers, did not have much else in common in terms of tone or style. However, their enduring respective legacies prove just how effective the technique can be.
While the revelation may be familiar, its execution can still be novel, fun, and engaging for fans of the Bond franchise. The recurring trope of classic campy Bond villains secretly being former MI6 operatives is a twist that interrogates the ethics of 007’s work and is a reveal that has turned Bond’s world around both times that it occurred in the series so far. As such, there’s no better way to introduce a new Bond than by bringing back this twist. Furthermore, thanks to this device, both Goldeneye and, to a lesser extent, Skyfall did usher in a campier, more over-the-top tone for the franchise which is exactly what Bond’s next movie needs.
The Former MI6 Hero Twist Explained
Both Skyfall’s over-the-top villain Raoul Silva and Goldeneye’s deadpan killer Alex Trevelyan was revealed to be former colleagues of Bond, and both movies see the writers utilize this connection to make the character’s villainy more personal than usual. In Goldeneye, Bond himself feels he has betrayed his former coworker 006, whereas his boss M gets to shoulder the blame for creating Skyfall’s villain. However, the net effect is the same—the Bond movies both lead viewers to wonder just how much Bond’s heroism is his own choice and how much of it is driven by his employers. This results in a 007 outing where the hero feels he can’t even trust his co-workers, thus refreshing the familiar rhythms of the franchise. It can be tempting for filmmakers to use Bond’s gadgets, quips, and well-worn dynamics with Q, the frequently recast Miss Moneypenny, and M to guarantee viewers get the recognizable tone they want from the franchise. In contrast, revealing Bond can't trust himself or those around him adds new urgency to the series.
Why The Bond Twist Works
The Bond movies constantly toy with the idea of MI6’s work—secret surveillance, covert assassinations, etc—being morally dubious while still depicting Bond as a hero at the end of the day. Villains who have their origins in MI6 are an effective way for the movies to contrast these outlaws with Bond, and the characters force both viewers and the hero himself to interrogate their view of 007’s supposed heroism. For example, when Skyfall revealed that M double-crossed Silva, many fans of the franchise who sympathized with Bond were quick to think his employers got what was coming to them. However, when Skyfall's unexpected Bond backstory then revealed that M helped nurture the orphaned 007, the story became more complicated and the villain’s motivations no longer seemed so understandable.
Why Bond 26 Needs This Twist
Introducing a new Bond is never easy and, while Casino Royale had the luxury of giving Bond a backstory, Bond 26 could find similar levels of emotional resonance in its new hero by forcing Bond to question everything about his work. This worked for Goldeneye, which introduced Brosnan’s 007, and the same trick can work again, particularly when Bond 26 needs to lighten the franchise’s tone without losing its dark streak (much like Brosnan’s Bond had to do when replacing Timothy Dalton). By establishing that Brosnan’s Bond had (seemingly) fatally failed 006, Goldeneye was able to create more fun, humorous Bond outing while still having real stakes. The opening sequence made it clear that this Bond was not impervious to harm and even lost a co-worker in his earlier years, meaning that the goofy moments and self-aware humor which soon followed was rooted in pathos and a relatively grounded setting.
How Bond 26 Can Make This Villain Twist Fresh Again
Goldeneye walked back its twist a little by revealing that Bean’s villain was always a bad guy, thus ameliorating any guilt that Bond might have otherwise felt about his part in the character's apparent demise. Similarly, Silva’s murder of M meant that the character’s criticisms of MI6 lost a lot of their validity since he turned out to be as violent and unhinged as Bond’s employers claimed. To really twist the knife in Bond 26, the series should borrow Bourne's most famous twist and make MI6 themselves the movie's villains. This would completely upend the structure of the James Bond series and result in a Bond who takes orders from no one and can’t trust anyone, a radical departure from the teamwork seen in Craig’s final outing as the character.
It was refreshing and unexpected to see Bond rely on his co-workers, Moneypenny, and Q during No Time To Die’s dramatic action, but the series needs to reinvent itself once again now that former star Daniel Craig has moved on from the role. The best way to do this would be to take the twist already utilized effectively in Goldeneye and Skyfall (that some villains are former MI6 operatives) and take it to its logical extreme by making MI6 themselves the movie’s villains. Whether the next Bond is Idris Elba, Daniel Kaluuya, or Tom Hardy, this twist would make the character feel new again and make the next movie's take on 007 a true change from his most recent screen incarnation. This sort of formula upheaval is what the James Bond franchise needs more than anything as the super-spy nears his next recasting, and Bond 26 would do well to learn from the success of Skyfall and Goldeneye by employing this killer revelation and leaving viewers unable to predict the movie’s action as a result.