Daniel Craig just finished his last film as James Bond, and while the time has come for him to put away his tuxedo, the 53-year-old actor shares one final friendly reminder for fans of the dashing MI6 agent.
The James Bond film franchise started out in 1962 with Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as the British MI6 agent, making him the first to portray Bond on the big screen. With the franchise being over 50 years old, the role of James Bond has been passed down to several actors — after Connery was George Lazenby, followed by Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and finally Daniel Craig, who held the mantle for fifteen years.
Craig debuted as James Bond back in 2006 with Casino Royale. He went on to portray Bond in four more films, with No Time to Die being his fifth and final James Bond role.
The James Bond star was asked what he thinks is a detail from the films that he has to constantly remind people about, and the actor said, “No more Bond girls.” According to Craig, the Bond girls “don’t exist anymore.” He added that there’s probably a chance they’ll turn up again, just not in his James Bond films.
Craig was most likely talking about the evolution of the female characters in the James Bond franchise. Gone are the days when the female characters were portrayed as femme fatales, damsels in distress, or even plainly as sexual objects. The female characters that Craig’s version of James Bond interacts with in the films are more complex compared to the “Bond girls” of previous James Bond versions.
In his last James Bond film, No Time to Die, the complexity of the female characters can clearly be seen. We have even been introduced to a new 007 — a woman named Nomi, portrayed by Lashana Lynch. Aside from Lynch, there’s also Lea Seydoux, who reprised her role as Dr. Madeleine Swann, and Naomi Harris, who gave us a new take on the character of Moneypenny with a lot of field action.
That’s pretty much all that Craig wanted to share, because when he was asked if he had any parting words for his role as James Bond, all he said was “Bye!”
While Lashana Lynch has been introduced as the new 007, there is still no announcement as to who will be taking over the role of James Bond. Lynch hasn’t shared much about the future of the James Bond franchise, but we do know that she isn’t the new James Bond — rather, she took on the code name 007 but she’s not confirmed to be replacing Bond in the franchise since her character’s name is Nomi.
But hey, who knows? Considering how much the portrayal of female characters have evolved in the more recent Bond films, plus the fact that the new 007 is a woman, maybe the future is female for the James Bond franchise.