While the James Bond movies have always been acclaimed for their wry quips, mind-blowing stunts, and catchy theme songs, the franchise has often stumbled in its female representation. Every Bond movie has a one-dimensional love interest with an on-the-nose name like Pussy Galore or Plenty O’Toole. These characters are dubbed “Bond girls” and their entire role in the plot usually revolves around being objectified in crass puns and sex scenes. Britt Ekland’s Mary Goodnight spends the entire third act of The Man with the Golden Gun in a bikini.
With No Time to Die, the producers finally started moving the dial in the right direction. Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge has a writing credit, which shows in the movie’s surprisingly well-rounded female characters. Nomi, the new 007 played by Lashana Lynch, and Paloma, the CIA operative played by Ana de Armas, both get involved in plenty of action, deliver plenty of their own classic one-liners, and never even entertain the idea of romancing Bond.
Now that Nomi and Paloma have given 007 fans a pair of badass women in the mold of Bond himself and Léa Seydoux has played a love interest with real depth and nuance, the next step is to give a woman the chance to play a hammed-up, larger-than-life megalomaniacal villain.
The Last Major Female Bond Villain Was In 1963
There hasn’t been a major Bond villain played by a woman since SMERSH colonel-turned-SPECTRE operative Rosa Klebb in 1963’s From Russia with Love, the second Bond film ever made. The Bond series has touched on the concept of a female villain in the decades since then. The title character in Octopussy is introduced as a villainous jewel smuggler, but she eventually switches to Bond’s side. Elektra King in The World is Not Enough is introduced as a love interest that Bond has to protect from the world’s most wanted terrorist, Renard, before the twist reveals that she’s in cahoots with him.
Neither of these was a traditional Bond villain in the mold of Dr. Julius No or Auric Goldfinger. If they’re obsessed with 007, it’s because they want to kill him, not seduce him. With both Octopussy and Elektra King, the writers felt the need to force a romance between Bond and the female villain. The same goes for GoldenEye’s lust-killing femme fatale Xenia Onatopp. These characters all fall into the “Bond girl” category more than the full-blown villain category. It makes sense that at least one evil mastermind trying to set the world on fire would be able to resist the gentleman spy’s charms.
Nomi and Paloma have proven that it’s possible to have a female character in a Bond movie who doesn’t have some kind of romantic relationship with Bond. A future Bond movie needs a female villain who doesn’t fall in love with 007 and simply embodies all the classic hallmarks: a unique personality quirk, a grandiose plan for world domination, and a secret lair where she feeds business rivals to sharks.
There Are Plenty Of Great Casting Choices
Bond’s villains are one of the most popular tropes of his big-screen adventures. They tend to be ambitious megalomaniacs with a quirky personality, a “god complex,” and a narrow-minded vision for a better world. This cartoonish portrayal of mustache-twirling evil is a great role for a character actor, and it shouldn’t be exclusive to male performers.
There are plenty of great female casting choices for an eccentric, nefarious Bond villain. Tilda Swinton played an offbeat antagonist in Snowpiercer and gave haunting, scene-stealing turns in horror movies like Suspiria, Only Lovers Left Alive, and The Dead Don’t Die. Cate Blanchett had a lot of fun hamming it up to play the villainous Hela in Thor: Ragnarok as a Disney baddie in the vein of Maleficent and Cruella de Vil. Helena Bonham Carter left behind her early-career “English rose” typecasting and went the other way with dark, outlandish roles in Fight Club, Mighty Aphrodite, and a bunch of Tim Burton movies.
What Will The Next Chapter Of The Bond Franchise Bring?
Despite the sense of finality with the end of Daniel Craig’s Bond era, the credits of No Time to Die promise, as usual, that “James Bond will return.” It’s unclear what the next chapter of the Bond franchise will bring. It can’t be too similar to the Craig era – the series has stayed fresh for so long because each actor’s movies have their own unique tone.
Sean Connery’s movies were relatively grounded spy thrillers, Roger Moore’s movies were defined by their tongue-in-cheek humor, and Timothy Dalton’s movies explored darker, edgier stories with more shocking violence. The next incarnation of 007 needs a brand-new take on the character paired with a radical tonal change of pace. Whatever happens with the next Bond actor, a female villain could be a good way to stand out.