Number’s up for Bond as 007 licence to kill goes to female actor
● Fleming hero retires and MI6 reassigns his code
He’s the alpha male of British spies, licensed to kill and master of quiet, targeted precision as he wipes out the villains who dare challenge the security of the British state.
But even James Bond is ushering in a new era. The next 007, to be revealed in the forthcoming 25th Bond movie, is to be a young black woman who rolls her eyes at his attempt to seduce her.
But traditionalists can breathe easy. Bond is still Bond.
With filming of some of the scenes for the latest instalment getting underway in the Scottish Highlands starring Daniel Craig as the hero, it has been revealed that his 007 number has been taken over by British actor Lashana Lynch, who earlier this year had a breakthrough role as fighter pilot Maria Rambeau in Captain Marvel.
According to a movie insider, the film, directed by Car y Joji Fukunaga, starts with Bond, now retired and living in Jamaica, receiving a call from spymaster M, desperate for help in combating a new global threat.
Then there is a spine-tingling moment at the start of the film when M says “come in 007”, and in walks Lashana, who is black, beautiful and a woman.
Phoebe Waller-bridge, who wrote the BBC comedy Fleabag and the top-rated, femaleled, Golden Glob e -winning Killing Eve, has been recruited to ensure this latest Bond film does not appear antiquated in how Bond relates to women.
The source said that the term “Bond girls” has been banned with female characters being referred to as “Bond women”.
Speaking slightly in defence of old-school Bond, WallerBridge said :“There’ s been a lot of talk about whether or not Bond is relevant now because of who he is and way he treats women.
“I think that’ s bollocks. 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.”
A number of Bond fans have expressed disappointment that black actor Idris Elba has not been chosen to replace Craig.
However, Lynch’ s new appointment within MI6 has been met with approval by fans.
“Lashana Lynch is going to be the new 007 (not the new James Bond, mind you) and I am so excited about it!” tweeted @Annefromthechi. “Not only is she great for the role, but we get the added bonus of watching racists’ tears flow.”
@Philnobiljr said the move “channelled” the thinking of Bond’s original creator, author Ian Fleming.
“Having are tired old Bond in present-day Jamaica, confronting his own obsolescence in the form of Lashana Lynch (possible) the new 007? That’s as Fleming as it goes.”
Fleming, whose family originated in Scotland, highlighted Bond’s Scottish links in the novel You Only Live Twice, published in 1964, writing the agent had attended Fettes College in Edinburgh. This is believed to have been influenced by the casting of Edinburgh-born Sean Connery as Bond in 1962’s Dr No.
In Fleming’s final novel, The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond says he regards himself as “a Scottish peasant and will always feel at home being a Scottish peasant”.