A new report promises major changes to the James Bond franchise for the currently untitled 25th film in the series. The Daily Mail reports that the film, which is has the working title Bond 25, will see actress Lashana Lynch portray MI6’s agent 007. Lynch is best known to audiences as Maria Rambeau from Captain Marvel and will be the first person of African descent and the first woman to portray 007 in the Bond series. According to the Daily Mail, the film will see James Bond, who is once again portrayed by actor Daniel Craig, come out of retirement at M’s behest to work with Lynch’s character, who has succeeded him as 007. M will be played by Ralph Fiennes, who has portrayed the head of Britain’s top-secret spy agency since 2012’s Skyfall.
Sources close to the production tell of an important scene at the beginning of the film when the old and new 007 first meet. The scene features Bond sitting in an office with M, who calls Lynch’s character into the room. The source says that the first meeting between the two superspies will be dramatic and mouth dropping, with Lynch’s character being dominate and powerful. A known womanizer, Bond is instantly attracted to the new 007, but finds that his old school seduction tactics do not faze the younger agent. Sources further praise Lynch’s performance, which is driven by a strong feminist script by Kill Eve writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge. In addition to the feminist message spurred on by the Me Too movement, Bond 25 will also feature numerous winks and nods to past entries in the franchise. One such nod will be a suit worn by Lynch’s 007, which will closely resemble the one worn by Roger Moore’s iteration of Bond from 1974’s The Man with the Golden Gun.
News of Lynch’s role follows confirmation that actor Christoph Waltz would again be playing Bond’s arch-nemesis Blofeld in the film. Rumors of Waltz’s return to the franchise first stirred last week, when visitors to Pinewood Studios in London claimed to have seen the actor filming for Bond 25. Variety later confirmed the rumor, while not providing any information on Blofeld’s role in the film. The character was last seen in 2015’s Spectre, where he was left by Bond to be arrested by M at the Westminster Bridge.
Bond 25 is currently scheduled to be released on April 3, 2020.
