We’ve had the first full No Time To Die trailer and as rumoured, Lashana Lynch is playing a new Double-O agent. But what hasn’t been confirmed yet is if her Nomi has replaced Daniel Craig’s retired James Bond.
A leak earlier this year alleged this and it’s looking likely, but will it be a gimmick or a stroke of narrative artistry?
In an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, Bond expert and author of Catching Bullets – Memoirs of a Bond Fan, Mark O’Connell reckons the latter.
He said: “I think it would make great poetry in the film if she was [007] because the fact she’s a woman, a black British woman – it’s so contemporary.
“If she is 007, it will be for a very good story reason to remind us why James Bond is 007.”
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Mark pointed out: “After 25 films, isn’t that enough of an extended universe already?
“I mean, yes, I’d love to see a Ben Whishaw does Q film, but actually Q isn’t in the film for two hours.
“His role, his point and his beat, is that he’s in it for two or three important, fun and information-giving scenes. So I don’t know those characters can be opened out.
“The temptation would be to end up making a Q film or a Moneypenny film that’s actually a quasi-Bond film with a pre-title and a song and lots of cars and gadgets…so ultimately you think, ‘well, what’s the point?’”
He added: “Also, the Bond people are fiercely protective, and rightfully guarded, of their character and franchise and the momentum of it.
“I don’t think they’ve got the time to really spin it off and keep control of it.
“What I think could possibly working are some animated period versions of the novels and short stories. I could see that entering into the Netflix-era; that different way of seeing things.”
No Time To Die is released in UK cinemas on April 2, 2020.