Is Captain Marvel’s Lashana Lynch Playing The New James Bond?

The 25th James Bond film, which is currently in the midst of what’s apparently a pretty chaotic production, will likely be Daniel Craig’s last outing as Britain’s iconic super spy. With the actor’s retirement looming, fans are beginning to place bets on just who might pick up the license to kill next, dropping names like Henry Cavill or Charlize Theron as potential replacements.

And while it’ll probably be a while yet before we get an official announcement on who the next 007 will be, a new theory from ScreenRant suggests that it could be Bond 25 star Lashana Lynch, who you may know from her role as Maria Rambeau in this year’s Captain Marvel.

In the upcoming action flick, she’ll be playing a character named Nomi, though we’ve been told next to nothing about how she’ll be involved just yet. However, what ScreenRant suggests is that with James not part of MI6 when the film kicks off, Nomi could be his official replacement.

After all, we know that Bond 25 begins with the hero living in Jamaica, retired and keeping himself away from the action, eager to live a quiet life. Though this obviously won’t last too long – otherwise we’d have a pretty boring movie to sit through – what if his retirement from MI6 has resulted in a hole that needs to be filled, and Nomi is the one who fills that hole?

As ScreenRant points out, Lynch certainly fits the bill, as of all the new cast members, she’s the only Brit and has also shown across her roles in the past that she’d have what it takes to tackle such an important part. But what’s also curious is that a recent Bond 25 set photo featured Nomi wearing a safari jacket which fans may recall looks awfully similar to the one Roger Moore sported in The Man with the Golden Gun. Given that it’s one of 007’s most famous outfits, having Nomi in something that’s almost identical to it is no doubt more than a coincidence.

All of that is without even mentioning that there’s been a ton of talk about the next Bond being black or a female, or both. And as ScreenRant notes, though Nomi obviously wouldn’t be named James Bond, she could still take on the 007 codename and carry the mantle going forward.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, though. While this is certainly an interesting theory to consider, we still know so little about the movie and it’s hard to speculate too much on what it may bring us. Director Cary Joji Fukunaga explained in an interview last year though that he wants to make a 007 film that “subverts the genre but still stays faithful to it.” Having Lynch be the new 007 would certainly do just that, but we’ll find out for sure if that’s what he’s planning when Bond 25 hits theaters on April 8th, 2020.