So, the new Bond film, No Time To Die has finally been released after multiple and an almost two-year delay. It’s been well publicised that this is Daniel Craig’s final outing as Bond. Craig has often cited the fact that he’s getting too old to play the character now, that’s why he’s decided to hang up the Walther PPK after fifteen years and five films.

Fairplay to the man, he doesn’t want to do a Roger Moore and be pushing 60 while trying to play the character, I actually doff my cap to Craig for knowing when to pull the plug. However, what always happens when the current James Bond steps down is, the rumour mill starts turning and news outlets begin the long-standing tradition of bringing up suitable replacements to take on the James Bond role. So far, we’ve had names like Henry Cavill, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hiddleston and more that have all been namechecked as the next James Bond.

However, after watching No Time to Die, I think I know what’s coming and who’ll play Bond next. Now, before I get into this, I have to pop up a very gargantuan SPOILER warning. Seriously, I’m about to reveal a few major plot points from No Time to Die that are huge and will ruin your enjoyment of the film if you’ve not yet seen it. So, please don’t read this article if you’ve not seen the film yet. Or read it if you don’t care about SPOILERS. Last chance coming up to click away from this one massive SPOILERS coming.

SPOILERS

So there are two major events in No Time to Die that change the entire landscape of the franchise from this point on. First, Bond has a daughter, Mathilde. Played by Lisa-Dorah Sonnet, Mathilde is the daughter of James Bond and Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) returning from Spectre. The second aspect is pretty ground-breaking (even if more than a little expected, to be honest), James Bond dies at the end. Now, this is not some subtle, off-screen death where you could possibly argue that Bond could come back. Oh no, Bond is dead for sure. He dies right there on-screen after being hit by a barrage of missiles that are launched at the villain’s hideout. Seriously, James Bond gets decimated. There is no possible way he survived, he’s deader than Felix Leiter. Oh yeah, Felix Leiter dies too. Hey, I did pre-warn about spoilers.

This changes things massively for the franchise. Producer, Barbara Broccoli, has recently been talking about the Bond character amidst suggestions that James Bond could become female. Broccoli has said that James Bond will always be male:

“James Bond is a male character. I hope that there will be many, many films made with women, for women, by women, about women. I don’t think we have to take a male character and have a woman portray him. So yes, I see him as male.”

So there you have it from the horse’s mouth, Bond is male and there is no intention to turn the character female. Of course, they could reboot the franchise and bring in a new male actor to play James Bond… but I don’t think that is what they have planned at all. I think the idea is to carry on in the Daniel Craig universe, even though James Bond is dead. See, Craig himself said something interesting recently on the very same subject of Bond becoming female:

“The answer to that is very simple. There should simply be better parts for women and actors of colour. Why should a woman play James Bond when there should be a part just as good as James Bond, but for a woman?”

In No Time to Die, James Bond isn’t 007 anymore. 007 is just a codename and anyone can be an agent with the famed 007 title. In the film, 007 is now Nomi, played by Lashana Lynch… who is both female and an actor of colour (as Craig suggested). Then you also have Barbara Broccoli suggesting that you don’t need to take the character and make him female too. Coincidence? I think not.

For me, I think they will carry on in the Daniel Craig universe (all of his Bond films have been connected in some way). Nomi as 007 will be the next ‘James Bond’, so to speak. She will carry on the series as the main character, but still being connected to all the previous events. I fail to see, from a storytelling point of view, why the producers would set all of this up, a new 007 agent and Bond having a daughter, to do nothing with it.

The very final scene of No Time to Die, before the credits roll (my favourite scene by the way) has Madeleine Swann driving away with Mathilde and telling her about ‘a great man’ called Bond, James Bond, her father. Not only does that scene reference one of the most heartbreaking scenes in a Bond film ever (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), it’s also setting up for the future. They could have Nomi as the new 007 for the next 15 – 20 years, then have a now-grown Mathilde work for MI6 as a new agent, Mathilde Bond and follow in her dad’s footsteps. The films between could also show Mathilde growing up and working towards becoming a 00 agent. There’s a lot of scope to be had here.

The great thing about this idea is that, if it fails, the producers always have the reboot idea to fall back on. Say, the next (not) Bond film is released with Lashana Lynch playing Nomi as 007 and it flops, they could just bring James Bond back and restart the whole thing… again.

So yeah, I don’t think there will be a next James Bond, none of the names continually being brought up will work out as there is no Bond anymore, he’s dead and I think the plan is to leave him dead.