As expected, the purists were up in arms when No Time to Die first revealed that Lashana Lynch’s debuting Nomi would be inheriting the mantle of 007 in the absence of Daniel Craig’s retired and exiled James Bond, and the backlash was every bit as fierce and hate-fueled as you’d imagine.
Just like that, an unsavory subset of the legendary franchise’s sprawling fandom cried that the globetrotting spy saga had officially gone “woke,” even though it was quite literally a plot point used for not much more than some light-hearted bickering between the two before Bond got his favored number back just in time for the third act.
Roger Moore’s son recently trashed the very notion of a woman or an American inheriting the tux, and in a recent interview with The Express, Indiana Jones veteran John Rhys-Davies – who starred opposite Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights – offered his two cents on the situation.
“I think Bond changes with the climate. And I think the climate… I don’t think we’re ready for a female James Bond – yet. Because the whole concept of Bond is really male and chauvinist. Yes there are – I’m sure – there are very tough female agents in the world, but we need a Bond. We are in such a dangerous time at this moment. I just hope MI5 and MI6 are really up to it. I want Bond, James Bond.”
The good news for Rhys-Davies is that he’ll get exactly what he’s wishing for, because producers and James Bond overlords Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson have made it perfectly clear on a number of occasions that the title role will not be gender-swapped.
