THIS THREAD MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR NO TIME TO DIE

Daniel Craig has now had his last outing as James Bond and people are already looking to the future of the franchise. Where do you see it going? Where would you want it to go?

Continuation vs. Reboot

I guess the first choice for the studio is whether they want to continue the Daniel Craig continuity or reboot. If they wanted to, that continuity has plenty of room for further expansion - an established, strong cast of supporting characters (more Paloma please), and a new 007 already lined up who ticks all the casting boxes the studio will be looking for.

I think it will help, on that front, that No Time To Die introduced Nomi pretty well - she was able to shine in her own right and earn the audience's affection on her own terms, without ever feeling like she was usurping Bond. The film remained respectful of Bond's position as the main character. Possibly too respectful - having her give back the 007 designation at the end felt a bit corny and needlessly deferential. But anyway, my point is that she has entered the franchise on good terms and I think most people would be okay with her as an ongoing character, if the studio decided to go that route (pretty much the opposite of the Shuri "Infinity War" appearance where she immediately belittled the achievements and capabilities of Stark and Banner).

The real problem with this route is that it's difficult to call your movie James Bond without James Bond. So it would be more like a spin-off "007" franchise than the next James Bond.

On balance, I think a reboot is more likely and also the better route (RIP Paloma). The question then becomes what form the reboot would take.

Reboot: Standalone vs. Sequential

A major decision they have to make about any reboot is whether they want it to be a series of completely standalone films or if they want to tell a sequence of stories with an overarching plot/character arc in addition to the standalone plots.

While I have largely enjoyed the Craig movies, I think they suffered from a lack of studio-level decision-making on this front. Basically they tried to do both but the sequence's major failures (Quantum of Solace and Spectre) can be attributed to a lack of proper forethought and planning as regards long term plotlines and character arcs.

Each director came on board to a blank slate to tell a standalone story - as Bond movies have traditionally been. But then they tried to also have overarching storylines which fell flat because of a lack of proper groundwork in earlier movies:

- The introduction of Christoff Waltz's character fell flat because the mystery he resolved had not been properly foreshadowed in the earlier films.

- The Skyfall themes of Bond's methods and approach being outdated but there still being a place for him could have been better foreshadowed in earlier films if they had known they were going in that direction.

- Vesper's betrayal, her connections to Spectre, and the major impact she had on Bond's character arc could and should have had more time spent on it - perhaps making it the central conflict of the second film, rather than a tacked-on secondary climax to the first.

- If they had done that, then Madeleine's introduction could also have been done better as her father was tied into that whole storyline. And then Bond's romance with her and the way she essentially acts as the vehicle for him to learn to trust again would have better grounding.

In short, I hope for the next sequence they put a bit more thought into the planning at an early stage, with the aim of producing a coherent sequence which tells a unified character arc. Either that or just tell independent stories without ongoing plotlines/characters. But trying to do both just results in problems.

Reboot Options

Other major decisions to make would be:

1. Era. Do they go retro Cold War era, perhaps returning all the way to the Fleming novels, or do they set the next Bond in the present day?

2. Realism of action and spycraft. This has a major role in setting the tone for the story. Craig's sequence started with a commitment to slightly more realistic spycraft and action, setting a more grounded tone, but his movies got progressively more outlandish as they went on.

3. Extent of politics. There are possibly interesting stories to be told about a Bond who has to face up to Britain's declining place in the world, the relative capabilities of MI6 and the CIA, the increase in surveillance as part of intelligence operations, or a new Cold War with China, etc. But these are significant contemporary political issues which the studio may well wish to steer clear of (especially with the Chinese box office in mind). This ties into the spycraft as regards the overall tone of the films - the more realistic the politics, the more grounded the movies will feel.

Personally my preference would be a retro reboot set during the Cold War era, with more grounded spycraft and a mystery/detective focus rather than action focus, something closer to the original Ian Fleming novels.

However, I wouldn't go full retro. Certain innovations of the Craig era should stay, I think, in particular building up a strong supporting cast who persist between movies (including a number of well written female characters who balance out Bond's somewhat chauvinistic nature). And my preference would be for a planned out, overarching plotline as well as standalone plots, because once you have the persisting cast, if feels like a waste not to flesh them out and use them to tell longer term stories.

 

Reboot could have Paloma too. Judi Dench was both Brosnan's and Craig's M.

Anyway, I want a standalone movies reboot with young Bond who enjoys his job. 15 years of tortured hero who is getting older is enough. Time for someone who loves his job. Maybe even too much and the question of Bond's sanity could be a more darker aspect if it if they want to add something like that.

A safe villain for the next film is a CEO of some Internet company. Or it could be some crazy inventor and the twist in the end would be that after Bond managed to get him, MI6 recruited him as their new Q.

But the concept I liked the most that someone wrote in reddit would be a spy film with multiple possible Bonds. Just a movie where the audience can't tell which person is the spy among the rest and only at the end, the actor who plays 007 would introduce himself as "Bond. James Bond."

_WHO IS___
____BOND__
______7_____​

Really cool, but almost impossible to do these days.

 

If they give Christopher McQuarrie a chance to make the next Bond Film, then it will definitely be a success.

I think they should just do a complete reboot.

Cast a new bond and give him/her new storylines and new creative world to exist in.

 

I like this concept.

But wouldn't this basically mythologies bond?

The entire point of bond is that he is supposed to be clandestine, no?

So people shouldn't be running around claiming to be bond.

Maybe its time to visit the other double OOs

 

They wouldn't claim to be Bond. It would be for example some meeting between members of Spectre, first time face to face because they needed to choose a new boss. Then they would discover that one of them is not who he claims to be, but MI6 agent. It would be up to them to discover which one is a spy as he would do his best to rise already high level of mistrust between them. And because they would be sabotaging each other, it wouldn't be obvious which one is Bond even to the viewer.

 

If you’re going to do that

don’t even market as a Bond movie so the twist is more real.

 

This. Bond movies are supposed to be fun.

 

Saw No Time to Die, and while I mostly enjoyed it, I gotta say, I hated the permanence of that ending. It's going to make a reboot with a new Bond feel very odd.

Anyways, I don't see a "Nomi" 007 movie happening. Like, she was a fine character, but not interesting enough to warrant her own movie. They didn't really give her any thought beyond "Bond's vaguely cheeky replacement" which I thought was a shame.

Also highly unlikely to happen, but if they did want to continue the current continuity, I think a much better idea would be a soft reboot with young Mathilde Bond (why the fuck does she not have a J name) following in her father's footsteps.