Last week, we finally got a little bit of news for the upcoming James Bond 26 film that we can sink our teeth into. We already knew that the next installment of the venerable franchise will be directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Steven Knight. While we still don’t know who will play the iconic spy, we did get some hints as to what Knight’s script may include. I’ll say it right out, I’m not encouraged.
It Sounds Like This May Be A James Bond Origin Story
According to the news first reported by Deadline last week, scriptwriter Steven Knight (creator of Peaky Blinders and House of Guinness, which you can watch with a Netflix subscription), is “going back to Bond’s beginnings,” including his time in the Navy before he was recruited by MI6 and before he attained “Double 0” status. This is hardly music to my ears.
Adding to that is the reporting that Villeneuve is looking for an unknown actor in his late 20s or early 30s to replace Daniel Craig as the legendary character. A younger actor would presumably be there to play a younger Bond. All of this adds up to something I don’t want: a James Bond origin story.
Origin Stories Are Played Out
For me, there is nothing more annoying in superhero movies than repetitive origin stories. Every director of a Batman movie seemingly has to give the audience his version of Bruce Wayne’s parents’ death, as if it’s not an indelible piece of pop culture history at this point. One of the most refreshing things about James Gunn's Superman is that there wasn’t a boring origin story. We know who Superman is and how he became Big Blue, so let’s get the story started!
As far as Bond goes, we’ve been watching these films for more than 60 years. Does anyone really want to see how he became Bond? I know I don’t. I want to see him dropped right into his next adventure, new actor or not. This is how the franchise operated for decades. Even as it jumped from the Connery era to the Moore era and beyond, we never had to deal with a tedious backstory. Bond was immediately off and running from the opening scene on. Daniel Craig’s first movie did have an origin story, but it was mercifully brief.
Maybe I’m Alone Here, But I Doubt It
I’ve been watching Bond movies since I saw my first one in theaters in the mid-80s (Octopussy), so maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think so. Not only do most fans of the franchise know a little about Bond’s history, like the character having served in the Royal Navy before joining MI6, but I have to ask, do we even want to know his whole history?
The Craig era of Bond films delved into his past more than at any other point in the franchise. In Spectre, audiences traveled with Bond and M (Dame Judi Dench) to his ancestral home in Scotland, for example. Really, though, one of the coolest things is that so much about him is a mystery. It’s like he came fully formed as a super spy, and that’s the way I like it. Please keep it that way!
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