Move over Bond, Lashana Lynch is the future of the 007 franchise

By Amon Warmann

 

Lashana Lynch as 00-agent Nomi in 'No Time To Die'. Credit: Universal

 

Last July, when it was first rumoured that Lashana Lynch might play 007 in No Time To Die, the reaction was as thoughtless and backward as we’ve come to expect.

 

According to some fans, a woman was “taking over the role of Bond” (she isn’t) – and it was all down to a sudden case of “political correctness” (it’s not, unless you assume that white men are a human default setting).

 

Really, the only response to this news should have been excitement.

 

If it wasn’t already clear, last week’s No Time To Die trailer has made it abundantly so: Lynch’s 00-agent Nomi is not just the Bond franchise’s present, she should also be its future.

 

Full Story: https://www.nme.com/blogs/the-movies-blog/lashana-lynch-james-bond-no-time-to-die-2749053

007 is James Bond, Not Janet Bond, not Jennifer, not Jasmine..... ????

Ian Fleming is going to have another heart attack. Goodbye Bond franchise. ????

Why not.

It was getting stale, a new direction might rejuvenate 

Finally. This is what America needs. We need more black faces. More black voices. More black minds. 

The problem with a discussion of gender or color is that there will be continuous arguments. If a book about James Bond describes a white man then changing him to be a woman of color seems just lazy. Invent a new, black, female secret agent. The problem is, the same people calling for people of color to take on traditionally white male parts would never accept the following:

Black Panther played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (she would be brilliant)

John Shaft played by Tom Hardy (he could do the accent)

Kunte Kinte played by Anthony Hopkins (can play anyone)

Blade played by Jennifer Lawrence  (already an action star so who cares if Blade is black?)

Fair's fair, eh?

Idris Elba would be perfect I think.

45 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Idris Elba would be perfect I think.

Only if half Swiss and half Scottish. If those are so I don't care what colour he is as long as he can act.

 

Nothing spells the end of a franchise so much as the producers clutching at trigger pronouncements to dredge up some publicity, because they've run out of ideas for the product. All they care about is bums on seats having paid large.

I'll pay to see a movie that entertains me, but making it about a female rings alarm bells given how disastrous every remake of a movie using females has been so far. Did anyone actually enjoy Ghostbusters feminised, and does anyone on the entire planet think Rebel Wilson is worth paying to see?

 

They can put a thousand women into a movie so long as it's not using a much loved franchise to get patrons to part with their money. When it's so blatantly exploiting the MALE Bond to provide a vehicle for a female lead I'll stay home.

2 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Really, the only response to this news should have been excitement.

Why? It's only a movie, not something real. Invent a cure for cancer and I'll get excited.

Benny Hill would make excellent Bond

Oh No, its 0069, time for some remakes of the older movies, maybe she can star in a new version of Octopussy

1 hour ago, ShindenGo said:

Finally. This is what America needs. We need more black faces. More black voices. More black minds. 

less black riots and looting.

Again he could be at the ambassadors  party, needs to be a transexual, single  parent vegan, ethnic  minority with learning difficulties/special needs, disabled and identifying as zhee.

What a ferked up world we  live in when people  dont even know what  bleeding sex they are.

3 minutes ago, bert bloggs said:

less black riots and looting.

 

They could make a movie about a female 00 agent, a 002, 007, 00 whatever. Itroducing a female 00 into the Flemming universe is a very doable thing. James Bond and the female 00 could have their own movies, with their own flavour, and even include cross overs. We have seen this in the Marvel Universe. It just seems so unnecessary, so lacking in artistic originality, to hijack something which is literally in black and white, a man, James Bond.

 

I'd like to add that the reference to 'white men' in the article is insulting, and somewhat pathetic. I for one would be fine is James Bond was black. Idris Elba is suave, charming, and cool. He'd make an excellent James Bond. So <deleted> off with your attempts at saying anyone who disagrees must be a racist misogynistic white male.

1 hour ago, Sujo said:

Why not.

I think she ought to be a lesbian, person of colour, with a prosthesis.

Why did they not choose a transgender . . . it would have been even more politically correct?

9 hours ago, Katipo said:

Marvel Universe

and  what a  load of  junk those  movies are

I abhor political correctness and this is PC gone mad. No more Bond movies for me. This could be the last Bond movie made, I certainly hope so.

James Bond is and always was, a handsome English man. So why do they now have an ugly black woman portraying him ?  Oh ! Its all about political correctness !  Why can't she star in a completely separate film under a new agents name ?  Probably wouldn't be a hit. I will never watch the new Jemimah Bond film. Can't see it being a success.

James Bond is iconically British. Therefore, with this context, the next Bond should definitely be Indian, maybe a Sikh.

"My name is Singh, James Singh, you can shake me, but it stirs me not." 

13 hours ago, bodga said:

Again he could be at the ambassadors  party, needs to be a transexual, single  parent vegan, ethnic  minority with learning difficulties/special needs, disabled and identifying as zhee.

What a ferked up world we  live in when people  dont even know what  bleeding sex they are.

So a Democrat then.

At the end of the day, James Bond was a misogynistic male from a different era that women loved for some strange reason. Trying to update Bond and make him/her woke is like 1984's rewriting of history. If you need female heroines, create them (Lara Croft springs to mind, and, to be topical, Diana (RIP) Rigg's Emma Peel). Don't try to ride on the coattails of something that's been and gone.  

that is as credible as any woman super hero knocking out a 300 pound muscle guy

Let her revive Pam Grier's role as "Foxy Brown" or Teresa Graves' role as "Get Christie Love!"

Meh, I expect it will flop worse than the gender enhanced ghost-busters remake.  ????

And that end the 007 Franchise people tune in to watch 007 so now it has nothing to do with James Bond 

Was great over the past decades 

20 hours ago, Sujo said:

Why not.

Because it's the role of a white English bloke, so if you have a black woman playing it, probably with a BLM sticker on her arm it's no longer James Bond

Edited September 11, 20205 yr by Orton Rd

Amazing, two pages and 29 posts on this subject, yet it seems no one thought to read reference in the NME correctly. Not even the O/P!

 

According to some fans, a woman was “taking over the role of Bond” (she isn’t) – and it was all down to a sudden case of “political correctness” 

 

She has been cast as 00- Agent Nomi.

 

Edited September 11, 20205 yr by Moonlover