With director changes, delays, and injuries, production on the 25th installment in the James Bond franchise hasn’t been easy. Getting Daniel Craig back for a fifth outing as Bond was a challenge in itself, with the actor having previously expressed his desire to move on from the role. And of course, folks have been chomping at the bit as to who would be filling Craig’s shoes after this latest adventure. So with news breaking that Bond 25 co-star Lashana Lynch’s character may have the title of 007 in the film (neither the studio or filmmakers have confirmed this development), there’s been a considerable amount of excitement, speculation, and whining.
Now for YEARS, there have been many who have longed for James Bond to be played by a person of color, specifically Idris Elba. Though the actor has never campaigned to play the role, he’s also admitted that he’d be more than happy to consider it if it were ever offered. Personally, I couldn’t care less about Idris Elba playing James Bond,( although I am looking forward to him referring to himself as “Black Superman” in the Fast and Furious spin-off, Tango & Ca- I mean, Hobbs & Shaw) as I feel like he is legitimately the most unimaginative choice for James Bond, regardless of race. Most people’s desire to see him as Bond boils down to him being British and wanting to shag him. If Craig’s Bond, and for that matter, Timothy Dalton’s Bond, have taught us anything, it’s that there’s a lot more to the character than most moviegoers would like to believe. This isn’t to knock Elba’s acting ability, but I genuinely believe that there are a considerable number of individuals whose motivation for fan-casting him in every conceivable role they can think of from popular fiction, including James Bond, is purely surface level.
But this latest news of how Lashana Lynch may be incorporated into the new Bond film has birthed several opinions on social media; many are rejoicing this as a grand achievement for representing women of color, while others are furious at the idea of anyone other than a white man being 007. Obviously, we should be critical of anyone whom, upon discovering this news, cries on Twitter about the franchise being ruined and done because of it. However, I’m not particularly ready to jump for joy about it myself.
With the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel in Disney’s upcoming live-action The Little Mermaid remake bringing the topic of racebending traditionally-white characters in popular fiction as minorities further into the spotlight, I certainly remember a time when I was all for it, and was happy to champion it in a handful of situations. When Naomi Harris was cast as Moneypenny in Skyfall, for that matter, I sure enough spent the next few months leading up to the film’s release digitally screaming “BLACK MONEYPENNY!!!!” all over social media. (I’m still kinda mad that we’ve yet to see a female rapper adopt “Black Moneypenny” as their stage name!) But a lot can change in seven years, and as I’ve seen more potential for actors and filmmakers of color to make opportunities for themselves to create content that’s theirs from a foundational, I’ve become less concerned with demanding racebending of people in control that don’t look like me. And I say this as someone who counts the Netflix (now PopTV) reboot of One Day At A Time as one of my current favorite shows.
It’s worth mentioning that Lashana Lynch’s situation with Bond 25 is different, in that the character of James Bond isn’t becoming a black woman, but that she is rumored to be introduced as the new holder of the 007 designation within MI6. For far too many individuals on social media who clearly lack reading comprehension, and didn’t bother to read the articles breaking the news beyond the headlines, Lynch is playing a character named Nomi, presumably an MI6 agent who will be 007 at the beginning of the film. If you didn’t see Spectre (and to be fair, you’re not missing much), the film ended with James Bond leaving MI6, thus leading into this new film, where Rami Malek will be playing the villain, and the natural assumption is that Bond will be forced out of retirement to stop him. This sounds par for the course, as Craig’s era as Bond has definitely leaned heavily on continuity between films more so than the films in the franchise that preceded him. Even Christophe Waltz will be returning as the villain Blofeld.
The prospect of a new agent becoming 007, especially a woman of color, is worth speculation. Obviously, there are a wealth of possibilities for a franchise many feel has never received a truly substantial reinvention, despite Craig’s films being decidedly more grounded and having more of a real-world feel to them than previous incarnations of James Bond. However, I’m not entirely ready to jump on the bandwagon just yet. There’s still no clear indication of what the plot of Bond 25 will be, and I’m personally preparing myself for the likelihood that Lashana Lynch’s role as 007 may purely serve as a plot point that doesn’t go beyond this upcoming film. And while I should account for those who are excited about this latest development in the franchise, who may be perfectly content with that likelihood, I don’t know if I personally would be.
It makes me think back to the whole Zendaya as “MJ” situation in the MCU Spider-Man films. There was a great deal of mystery clearly orchestrated by the filmmakers and media outlets surrounding who she’d be playing when she was cast in Spider-Man Homecoming, with many perched on the edges of their seats awaiting confirmation that she would be playing Peter Parker’s longtime love from the comics, Mary Jane Watson. And despite being referred to as “Michelle” throughout most of the film, plenty of folks loved the reveal at the end with her telling Peter, “My friends call me ‘MJ’.”, which has traditionally been how Peter refers to Mary Jane in the comics. For me, I would have been happy for Zendaya to be playing a completely original character that had nothing to do with Mary Jane, that stood on her own without the filmmakers feeling like they accomplished something by giving audiences a black “MJ” who clearly isn’t Mary Jane Watson. This actually becomes a bigger problem in Spider-Man Far From Home, as Peter, who barely had any interest in even being an acquaintance of Michelle in Homecoming, is now completely in love with her for no discernible reason other than the fact that she’s MJ now, and Peter needs to be in love with MJ. As beneficial as it would be to explore how we get to that point in the films, thus strengthening both characters, it’s a large gap in both the characters and the narrative that we’re just supposed to ignore. As a person of color, I ultimately felt like giving the character some tangential connection to Mary Jane, was done purely as a gimmick to get the films as much press as possible, without doing anything particularly groundbreaking. Even Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury within the greater MCU hinges purely on the hook of, “Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury”, which is decidedly different than Nick Fury just being black.
Some would suggest that my concern for how Lynch’s character will be utilized in the upcoming Bond film is unwarranted, as I have yet to see the film, and shouldn’t express my fear that my worst case scenario is what ends up making the final cut. While yes, I don’t know what the impact of Lashana Lynch as 007 will be, the implication that I should be in full-on acceptance of the prospect of 007 being a woman of color without having reservations about the motivations of the studio and filmmakers, or just not speak on the subject at all, is astoundingly problematic, in my opinion. Even more so as I’ve already had to be on the receiving end of this implication from people who are white, and further sought to silence my perspective because it didn’t relate to them specifically; confident in their carefully curated woke persona, while ironically exhibiting behaviors of those who revel in racist tendencies that they themselves would often speak out against. And that is some “grade A” bovine fecal matter.
And it ultimately factors into my reservations about Lashana Lynch in Bond 25. Is she going to be a character that is fleshed out and potentially built upon later, or is she just going to be, as some reports have stated, merely a “popcorn-dropping moment” in a film that’s still going to revolve around James Bond anyway. I’m still looking forward to the film, as I’ve seen every Craig Bond film in theaters already. Despite feeling like Spectre was woefully basic, there’s enough to Craig’s tenure as Bond that I’ve enjoyed, that I would naturally want to see what may be his final outing as the character.
I’m more than happy to be proven wrong, and surely there will be people of people of color who will disagree with my point of view. I harbor them no ill will, and if Lashana Lynch becoming 007 is something that they’re looking forward to, I suppose there’s only so much I can and should say to them, specifically, in response. All I can do is share how I feel about it, sit back, and let the cards fall where they may. . . Like in Casino Royale! . . . Because. . . James Bond?. . . .Poker? . . . Le Chiffre? . . . No? . . . . Okay. . . . :-(
