The first trailer for the new James Bond movie, No Time To Die, supports the theory that Daniel Craig’s Bond has been replaced as 007 by Lashana Lynch. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga from a script by, among others, Scott Z. Burns and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, No Time To Die is the 25th James Bond movie outing, and is set to be the final film to feature Craig in the title role, with the actor having previously expressed dissatisfaction with the part.
No Time To Die will begin with Bond enjoying retirement, before he’s dragged back into service by his old buddy Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) to help investigate the case of a missing scientist, which then throws him up against an all-new, all-terrifying villain, played by a mask-wearing Rami Malek. No Time To Die brings back a number of other familiar faces, including Léa Seydoux’s Madeline Swann and Christoph Waltz’s Ernst Stavro Blofeld, but there are some intriguing new additions - and none more so than Lashana Lynch’s Nomi.
Arguably the biggest theory about No Time To Die is that Lynch’s character is the new 007. That’s not to say the movie is introducing a female James Bond, but simply that she has taken on the codename in his absence, since he was very much on the outs from MI6 at the end of Spectre, and that’s a gap that needs filling. While it’s very much been in the theory/rumor bracket for a while, the No Time To Die trailer supports this notion by directly calling attention to the fact that Nomi is a 00-agent, but not telling us her full number.
If Lynch were simply playing just another random member of the organization, then there wouldn’t be any issue with revealing that she is, say, 008 or any other number. The greatest reason to withhold that information is because she really is the new 007, and Fukunaga & Co. are saving that for a bigger reveal, either in another trailer or the movie itself. The dynamic between Nomi and Bond in the trailer suggests this too: everything about their interactions, from Nomi telling him to stay in his lane, to pointedly calling him “Commander Bond”. James has always held that position, but the way it’s used here further distances him from his old role, as does the “Bond, James Bond gag”.
It’s also worth noting that M (Ralph Fiennes) asks “where’s 007?”, which again could be taken as a sign he’s looking for Lynch’s character, rather than simply asking for James Bond - whose whereabouts are, at that point, presumably known. Of course, there’s the possibility of a misdirect, but that doesn’t really seem to be what the No Time To Die trailer is doing. Based on the footage, and especially the dynamic between Craig and Lynch, then the latter having taken on the codename of 007 by the time of No Time To Die makes a lot of narrative and thematic sense.
More: Why A Female James Bond Is So Controversial (& Why It Doesn’t Really Matter)
- Bond 25 Release Date: 2021-10-08
