Daniel Craig’s 007 era was the Queen Mother of reinventions to the James Bond franchise. Here’s why it’ll be a tough act for James Bond 26 to follow.
SUMMARY
James Bond 26 will struggle to stand out from Daniel Craig’s legacy, which redefined the franchise with groundbreaking creative choices and a new demographic of fans.
Daniel Craig’s Bond films revived the franchise’s success by delivering something new and avoiding repetitive tropes, reigniting interest and proving the franchise could adapt to new eras and tastes.
The next Bond film faces challenges due to Bond’s death in Daniel Craig’s canon, as it must decide whether to make a hard reset or introduce a new agent with a different name, all while maintaining the core spirit of the franchise.
James Bond has been reinvented every time a new actor inherits the 007 mantle, but James Bond 26’s reboot is going to be harder after Daniel Craig’s 007 era than previous attempts.
Beginning in 2009 with Casino Royale, Craig played Ian Fleming’s famous secret agent in a total of five films, the fifth and final outing of his 007 occurring in 2021 with No Time To Die.
Craig’s James Bond era contained several groundbreaking moments for the franchise, and ushered in a new demographic of fans as it set itself apart from every previous reinvention of the world’s most famous spy.
Based on what’s known about the James Bond 26 reboot, it’s going to face challenges standing out from Craig’s legacy.
Fans adjusting to a new actor notwithstanding, many of the ways that Craig’s era differed from prior incarnations of 007 came down to creative choices and a reinterpretation of a character who had, by that time, become stale and predictable.
Daniel Craig’s Bond was simply unlike anything before him, and, despite the wild Bond 26 predictions, nd it will be an uphill battle to replicate that sort of narrative lightning in a bottle, and the endeavor will become, ironically, a celebration of what makes Craig’s James Bond movies so revered.
7Daniel Craig’s 007 Era Gave James Bond Real Continuity
Plot Points & Supporting Cast Carried Over Into Each Film
Daniel Craig played James Bond in five films, and while Connery and Moore were in more, Craig’s 007 era had a great deal of continuity.
Narrative threads were detectable in storylines across the films, particularly as they related to Bond’s personal history.
Each Daniel Craig James Bond movie could be seen as a standalone film and also part of a continuum, with many of the same supporting cast (and even some of the villains, like Blofeld, decades after they first appeared) moving with him to the next adventure, and that sort of continuity was appealing to get invested in the franchise.
If Daniel Craig’s films aren’t made canon, then James Bond 26 will need to perform a hard reset.
Whether it will act as a sort of prequel to other missions, as Craig’s did, and shape a new Bond into the world’s most famous secret agent, or position Bond as a seasoned veteran of British Intelligence, it won’t have the benefit of homogeneity from familiar faces appearing over and over again.
Even though all the other Bond films had set the groundwork, Craig’s Bond films managed to create a new foundation for his particular stories, which is not an easy feat.
6Daniel Craig’s James Bond Movies Were More Successful Than Previous 007s
These Blockbusters Reignited Interest In The Franchise
The era of Daniel Craig’s James Bond saw Bond movies reach a new height of success. While not every title landed, with certain durge entries like Quantum of Solace earning less at the box office than the critically acclaimed Skyfall, Craig’s Bond films saw a resurgence in interest for the Bond brand as a whole that had been in jeopardy ever since Pierce Brosnan put down his gun.
Craig’s Bond films proved that with the right story and attention to detail Bond could be a money-making franchise again, but not if the same tropes were recycled ad nauseum.
IT was important that the Daniel Craig Bond films deliver something new, and the moment they started to get repetitive was the same moment it was time for the franchise to change course again.
If every Bond film remained exactly in the style of Sean Connery’s run, or Roger Moore’s, it would not be able to adapt to new eras and tastes in entertainment.
James Bond 26 will need to discover what it can do to stand out among its predecessors while maintaining the core spirit and ethos of the franchise.
5Daniel Craig’s James Bond Death Creates A Unique Challenge For Bond 26
James Bond Is Dead In Daniel Craig’s Canon
Daniel Craig’s James Bond died at the end of No Time To Die by sacrificing himself to save the woman he loved and who was, in all probability, his daughter.
The James Bond of that universe is therefore dead, with the thought that the 007 mantle would be passed to another worthy successor with a different name.
In a way, this choice, while brutal in its finality, did provide a way for Craig’s Bond to exit the franchise decisively and with little wiggle room to return in some future film.
There are a few approaches that James Bond 26 can take in regards to Bond’s death, all of which present their own unique problems; Daniel Craig’s James Bond will not be part of the next film’s canon, which means a new actor can play James Bond but none of the excellent new supporting cast can reprise their roles in future films, or 007 will be given to a different agent with a different name, which will need to be changed to “James Bond,” creating some hiccups of its own in terms of history and lore.
4Daniel Craig’s 007 Seemed Like A Real Person
Daniel Craig Made Him Feel Human
In the past, James Bond could seem like a larger-than-life embodiment of style, charm, and lethality that no real person could live up to, but Daniel Craig changed that.
Craig had the face and build of someone who had lived through interesting times, and his films tested his fortitude both as a secret agent in service to England and as a person who had to watch people he loved get threatened, kidnapped, and in some cases, killed.
Craig’s Bond was incredibly human, with deep emotions barely contained beneath his stony veneer.
It remains to be seen how the next James Bond will come across, but it will be unfortunate if Bond were to go back into a box.
As the MCU has shown, even cape and cowl wearing superheroes are capable of being much more than spandex-wearing ciphers.
The humanity behind their glorified personas is what helps audiences connect with them, and it doesn’t even have to exist in a grandiose and melodramatic way, but just enough to be accessible and perhaps even something to emulate.
3Eva Green Remains A Favorite Bond Girl From Daniel Craig’s James Bond Movies
Vesper Lynd Had A Legacy In Daniel Craig’s James Bond Movies
Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale changed the face of the stereotypical “Bond girl” with a compelling performance and dynamic portrayal of a role that could have been reduced to an archetype.
Not only did she have agency as a character, but her choices were integral to the plot of the film, to such an extent that they shaped Daniel Craig’s 007 in pivotal ways.
While she was considered beautiful, sexy, and alluring, she was also intelligent, intuitive, and determined, and ended up leaving an indelible mark on the Daniel Craig Bond films with continual references throughout his later films.
No other Bond girl has had Vesper’s legacy, and while James Bond 26 could choose to do away with the concept of having a Bond girl altogether, if it does include one, there are certain actresses who can update the “Bond girl” without being compared to Vesper in a variety of ways.
Most Bond girls change from film to film, and so even if they’re fortunate enough to make an impression like Vesper, they are easily replaced.
This is one area where James Bond 26 could choose to differentiate itself and open the door for more of a partnership with Bond.
2Daniel Craig’s James Bond Movies Set A High Standard For Action
They Were Unlike Anything In The Genre
The Daniel Craig James Bond movies took a page out of up-and-coming action movies of the era like The Bourne Identity and utilized wide shots and long takes to make the action feel visceral.
His Bond films had car chases and shootouts that dropped fans right into the middle of the mayhem, and while they could be disorienting at times, they felt far removed from the clean, slick action sequences of earlier Bond films.
In many ways, Craig’s 007 films were unlike any other action film at the time and were blueprints for John Wick and other hyper-violent and hyper-stylized action films that would come later.
Whether James Bond 26 will make such an impression in the action genre is unknown, but it will face the challenge of living up to the precedent that Daniel Craig’s James Bond era set.
It will either have to continue with the momentum or change the genre in some thought-provoking way that takes fans’ breaths away.
This is easier said than done, particularly after four John Wick films, but it’s not impossible given the amount of international talent that Bond films command to infuse the films with unexpected and unanticipated execution.
1Daniel Craig’s James Bond Movies Were Gritty & Serious
Any New Direction Will Feel Very Different
From the beginning with Casino Royale, Daniel Craig’s James Bond movies set a serious and gritty tone.
With a dour and mercurial mood that harkened back to Timothy Dalton’s brief tenure as Bond, the film sees Bond go through extreme physical and emotional torture, calcifying him into the calculating, impervious secret agent that has become a canonical staple.
Ian Fleming wrote Bond as an unflappable operative with the cold, dead eyes of a killer, who used charm as one of many weapons in his arsenal to get the job done, and Craig’s movies embraced that.James Bond 26 will face an uphill battle introducing a lighter tone to the franchise overall.
The pendulum may need to swing in the opposite direction after the gloomy finale of No Time To Die but fans might still find themselves jarred by such a swift creative pivot.
If it wants to succeed, James Bond 26 will need to differentiate itself enough from the Daniel Craig Bond movies, but without being completely unrecognizable, which was handled much better between Dalton and Pierce Brosnan’s Bond rather than Dalton’s and Roger Moore’s.
