A long time ago – all the way back in the year 1989 — fans were furious when Tim Burton casted Michael Keaton in the coveted Bruce Wayne/Batman role alongside Jack Nicholson as the Joker.
The same thing happened again when Heath Ledger took on the Joker in 2008, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
But James Bond is a whole different beast of a character and it was just announced who would replace Daniel Craig in the iconic role.
Daniel Craig is officially hanging up his cleats when “Bond 25” hits theaters in April 2020.
The plot is described as, “Bond has left active service. His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.”
Joining Craig in the new installment is Rami Malek – coming off his Academy Award for Best Actor for “Bohemian Rhapsody” who is rumored to be the main villain – and Christoph Waltz will be reprising his role as Blofeld.
But none of those actors or any of the ones rumored will take over as 007.
Actors like Chris Hemsworth, Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston, Tom Hardy, Henry Cavill and Dan Stevens were all rumored at some point to don the black suit. There was even a petition going around to make Gillian Anderson – Agent Skully from “The X-Files” – as Jane Bond.
Turns out, taking it in a different direction was exactly what head producer Barbara Broccoli was planning all along.
The plan all along was for Craig to pass the torch to up-and-comer African American Lashana Lynch, who had her breakout role in “Captain Marvel” as Maria Rambeau, who was Captain Marvel’s (Brie Larson) best friend and Air Force pilot.
A Bond insider claimed, “There is a pivotal scene at the start of the film where M says ‘Come in 007,’ and in walks Lashana who is black, beautiful and a woman. It’s a popcorn-dropping moment. Bond is still Bond but he’s been replaced as 007 by this stunning woman.”
That’s a little bit of a shocker for several reasons. Not only will the Bond franchise continue without the titular character, but also they may just neglect Ian Fleming’s novels altogether.
The same source added, “Bond, of course, is sexually attracted to the new female 007 and tries his usual seduction tricks, but is baffled when they don’t work on a brilliant, young black woman who basically rolls her eyes at him and has no interest in jumping into his bed. Well, certainly not at the beginning.”
This is actually something Craig has been honest about from the beginning. In 2015, he called Bond a misogynist.
Craig said, “Let’s not forget that he’s actually a misogynist. A lot of women are drawn to him chiefly because he embodies a certain kind of danger and never sticks around for too long.”
The “very strong women” Bond surrounds himself with, in contrast, “have no problem putting him in his place.”
He’s right about the other women in his life not tolerating his shenanigans like Judi Dench as M.
Now it seems they want more empowered females in the franchise and that’s why they’re having Bond pass the torch to Lashana Lynch. It’ll be interesting to see what the next installment will look like and if Craig ever makes another cameo as Bond again.