Who needs to be the following James Bond is at all times a tricky query.
However by no means extra so than proper now.
Murmurs acquired loud after Daniel Craig donned the tuxedo for the ultimate time in 2021’s “No Time To Die.”
Nonetheless, hypothesis has been deafening within the weeks because the franchise’s longtime producers, the Broccoli household, ceded artistic management to SPECTRE, sorry, Amazon — maybe out of worry that their decision-making won’t be so prime.
Jeff Bezos even tweeted, “Who’d you pick as the next James Bond?”
Overeager Jeff appears like he’s asking us to go away a overview on Amazon.
Followers have been shouting that Idris Elba needs to be Bond for what appears like 30 years. He’s 52 now, in order that dream has been 00-86’d.
And at present, there’s a wrongheaded on-line push for former “Superman” Henry Cavill to tackle the function of the MI6 agent with a license to kill. Dangerous concept. Clark Kent is simply too recognizable, glasses or no. And did you see “Argylle”? On your well being and sanity, I hope not.
My intestine tells me that the last word 007 actor shouldn’t be very well-known in any respect. Not but, anyway. It’s greatest if he’s not a family identify till the very day the Bond producers reveal him.
Which means no Supermen, no Spider-Males (Andrew Garfield), no big motion film heroes and no apparent A-listers. Why? As a result of it’s very important for our escapism that the person disappear utterly into the enduring function.
Enjoying Bond is like becoming a member of the Males in Black — you give up your complete id. A lot to Daniel Craig’s chagrin!
Proving my level, the six splendid actors who’ve performed the super-spy up to now have come from smaller or status movies, TV and relative obscurity. And now they’re solely recognized for one factor — and that factor enjoys vodka martinis.
Sean Connery had solely appeared in a number of modest motion pictures comparable to “Darby O’Gill and the Little People.” Roger Moore was Simon Templar on TV’s “The Saint.” Pierce Brosnan starred on “Remington Steele,” and Timothy Dalton acted in interval items and one of many worst photos ever made: “Sextette” with Mae West. Weirdest of all, George Lazenby, was a mannequin with no efficiency expertise.
It’s secure to say that Craig’s pre-007 flicks comparable to “Road to Perdition” and “Shakespeare in Love” don’t have an excessive amount of overlap with the worldwide Bond fandom.
That’s the way in which it should be.
My different standards?
I’d choose Bond to be British, however he’s been performed terrifically by an Irishman (Brosnan) and completely advantageous by an Aussie (Lazenby). Individuals, search employment elsewhere.
My solely different rule is that the selection be no older than his early 40s. Bonds have began out slightly lengthy within the tooth (Brosnan was 48), nevertheless it makes probably the most sense for the collection to return to the youthful vigor of a 32-year-old Connery in “Dr. No.” Not a 57-year-old Moore making out with twenty-something bombshells on a fur rug.
A favourite candidate of mine is 40-year-old Theo James.
Because the jerk boyfriend on Season 2 of “The White Lotus,” the Brit was each harmful and easy — Connery-esque, truly — and regarded each bit the half cavorting round a luxurious resort. Sure, he starred within the “Divergent” movie collection a decade in the past, however no person remembers that.
Craig, in the meantime, is claimed to be privately rooting for 34-year-old British actor Josh O’Connor, who performed then-Prince Charles on Netflix’s “The Crown” for 2 seasons, and made a splash as a down-and-out tennis participant in final yr’s “Challengers.”
He’s a strange-but-fun thought. For one, O’Connor appears to be like as if he’s been ripped proper out of the Nineteen Sixties. However he additionally has a pure quirkiness that’s been lacking from the collection since Dalton handed in his Walther PPK in 1989. He’s far more intriguing than the typical boring brute who runs round in formalwear.
One other risk is Lucien Laviscount, the 32-year-old Englishman who’s greatest recognized for his function because the macho love curiosity on “Emily in Paris.”
In addition to his frighteningly symmetrical bone construction, he’d carry again the humor and delight that made Moore and Brosnan so common. Laviscount is the hard-to-achieve mixture of scary and charismatic. Scharismatic?
All three actors symbolize contrasting sorts and really totally different instructions for the storied collection.
However what can be most satisfying is that if an eagle-eyed director or producer plucked a complete unknown from a West Finish play or an open casting name, and launched him to the world.
The return of James Bond, in spite of everything this messy company upheaval, must be a large, feel-good, worldwide occasion so as to keep related. Not only a twenty sixth film with an attractive seaside scene.
Minting a model new star is the easiest way to do this.
