much-delayed release of No Time To Die.
The James Bond franchise has been through numerous reinventions, with each new actor that takes on the part bringing with them a distinct tone and aesthetic. Timothy Dalton’s harder-edged, more grounded Bond brought an edge of (relative) realism back to the franchise after the campier antics of Roger Moore’s later outings. In contrast, Pierce Brosnan took the opposite approach and leaned into Bond’s goofier, more over-the-top, self-aware side to differentiate his take on the character from Dalton’s.
Bond actors often win critical acclaim in their early outings, but struggle to hold onto these positive reviews for their later appearances in the role. Brosnan’s last movie, Die Another Day, was an embarrassing misfire, while Moore’s later outings were a touch too silly even for the escapist series. However, Daniel Craig’s Bond has a different problem. After the dark, brutal Casino Royale received rave reviews, blockbusters at large moved to a more fun, self-referential tone throughout the 2010s and left this version of the Bond franchise feeling stale and humorless. One way to fix this issue without losing the high stakes and drama that spy stories need is to open the 007 universe up. Creating spinoff movies for other characters central to the wider espionage world, like the John Wick series has done with The Continental, would refresh the franchise and widen its scope.
With the focus taken off Bond, 007 spinoff movies would be able to reengage people who were bored by the self-seriousness of the franchise’s recent outings. After the advent of Fast & Furious franchise as Bond’s biggest box office competition, and both those series have a fun, goofy tone that is crucially missing from recent James Bond movies. Suddenly reinventing Bond as a winking, silly self-parody would be cringe-worthy after Craig’s tortured, troubled take on the role, but focusing on his colleagues and ing stars in spinoff movies of their own could gradually introduce some levity into the series.
The Bond universe is one of the most colorful and well-traveled fictional worlds, yet the franchise approach has never leaned into world-building nearly as much as is expected of a modern franchise. With many friendly and adversarial agencies and recurring friends and enemies, the world of 007 could thrive in a shared universe full of spin-off opportunities. Bond needs to be fun again once Craig leaves and, as proven by the spinoff novels The Moneypenny Diaries, switching the POV character of a franchise installment can often be enough to give the series a new spark and creative verve. Whether it is a peek behind the curtain of MI6’s internal workings or a backstory for one of Bond’s collaborators, a spinoff movie setting up a larger universe is the John Wick trick that the James Bond series should steal to reignite interest in the franchise.
