Not Bond, not white and not a man. Agent 007 gets colour and character

If you’re a Bond fan, you must have heard it by now. 

Producers of the movie franchise that has spawned a series of blockbusters around one of the most fiercely loved and followed spy characters in cinematic history have decided to shake things up by passing on the mantle to a black woman. Yes, you heard that right! 

British actor Lashana Lynch is rumored to step into actor Dainel Craig’s shoes as the globe-trotting spy who has in all the 25 installments been a handsome, straight, white guy with savoury women and wit in his armory of slick tricks. Except, there’s a catch. The news first reported by the Daily Mail, states James Bond, the celebrated spy shall walk into the sunset with Craig who comes out of exile for a reprisal of Ian Fleming’s character for the fourth and last time. 

Lynch, who shot to stardom with her act in Captain Marvel, will be passed down the famous code of the British Secret Service 007 from Craig. In effect, she will not be playing Bond, but she does get to play the role of the most adulated spy. The dichotomy, which is evidently at play here, will divide the fans of the character whose name as Bond and code, Agent 007, have remained practically inseparable since Fleming birthed the character in 1953.

Bond producers have been attempting to reinvent Agent 007 since the underproduction film loosely titled Bond 25 after the serial number of the character’s latest outing went to floors. The character has made stars with cult following out of all-white actors, Sean Connery, Sir Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Where the Academy of motion picture arts and sciences (Oscars) is plucking more people of colour and race and planting them in its nursery for an inclusive harvest of ideas, black actor in an all-white franchise was up for taking. 

The latest edition of the Men In Black, MIB International, also has a woman as an agent of the secret organisation for the very first time since it opened to a full house with actors Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones totally nailing the lead roles in the late 90s. (Ya, that’s how old the franchise is!) The roles have now been essayed by American singer and actor, Tessa Thompson, who stars alongside Chris Hemsworth, her Avengers co-actor. MIB’s new agents, however, couldn’t rekindle the deadpan humour and unmatched camaraderie of agent J and K – courtesy, a weak script – and saw the loyal fan following turning alien.

Also read: Alien hunt on FB and why Agent J has passed on the baton to ‘Thor’

British actor Idris Elba, whose broodingly handsome screen presence has made him an international star, has long been rumoured to play the role of a black Bond. He never made it in spite of the incessant hype around his name as a front-runner for the role. Although, his reading of the situation – much before Lynch came into the picture – triggering the “why male” debate and that Bond could be a black woman or a white woman, seems to have made an uncanny yet perfect landing.

Lynch’s selection in a movie series that has for major part presented women as an arm candy for a commitment-phobic white spy, and has had only two female writers on board since the first film rolled out, is therefore, nothing short of radical. Women actors playing the lead opposite Bond started breaking the shackles of philophobic masculinity only after Brosnan took the spy’s martini in his Irish swagger. With Craig, the female actors found character, something which Bond also acquired like a Scotch mellowed in wooden cask.   

Eva Green who played the role of the star-crossed Vesper Lynd opposite Craig in his remarkable first outing as Bond in Casino Royale believes James Bond should be a man. At a film premiere she said “Women can play different types of characters, be in action movies and be superheroes, but James Bond should always be a man and not be Jane Bond. There is history with the character that should continue. He should be played by a man.”

The latest gig takes Agent 007’s famous quip on his Martini, shaken not stirred, to a new metaphorical understanding where the fans have been shaken, and the cinematic verse stirred in a dramatic quest for reinventing a popular fictional character.