Lashana Lynch is making major waves in No Time to Die. The latest installment in the Bond franchise marks Daniel Craig’s final turn as James Bond. However, Lynch’s Nomi, a no-nonsense MI6 agent who temporarily inherits the 007 moniker, has stolen the spotlight from the super-spy altogether. Her introduction has also made Lynch a strong pick for Bond’s successor.
For years, fans have wondered whether the next Bond could be a woman or a person of color. When Lynch was first cast in No Time to Die, many speculated that she would be playing a female Bond. Long-time Bond producer Barbara Broccoli has already made it clear that the character will likely always be male, but she has never been averse to giving a female character their own standalone film. Many think a spin-off may be an option for Nomi — after all, Broccoli has tried to make it work before with a Bond girl from Pierce Brosnan‘s era.
Back in 2002, Oscar-winning actor Halle Berry starred opposite Brosnan in his final Bond outing, Die Another Day. While the film went down as one of the worst in the franchise, Berry’s character, Giacinta “Jinx” Johnson, was an instant favorite. The film follows Bond as he tracks the connection between a North Korean terrorist and a British diamond tycoon. He crosses paths with Jinx, an NSA agent sent to thwart the same terrorist, and the pair team up to achieve their mutual goal.
Unlike most Bond women, Jinx’s competence put her on equal footing with Bond. The two characters share many similarities, both in their efficient fighting skills and their penchant for mixing business with pleasure. It made Jinx a perfect candidate for a spin-off. Barbara Broccoli and fellow Bond producer Michael G. Wilson lobbied hard for a Jinx standalone. Negotiations seemed to be going well — Berry was even on board to star — but MGM Pictures drew the line at the $80 million budget.
Berry is still disappointed over the studio’s choice to shelve the project, citing the spin-off as “ahead of its time.” This sentiment is especially frustrating considering the Black action stars that raked in major box office revenue in the 2000s. Will Smith led countless blockbusters like Bad Boys, Independence Day and Men in Black, while Wesley Snipes helmed the Blade trilogy, which to this day remains a cult classic. Female-led action movies like Underworld and Tomb Raider enjoyed similar success. However, banking on a Black woman to meet a similar goal was apparently too much of a risk.
“Nobody was ready to sink that kind of money into a Black female action star,” Berry recently told Variety. MGM might have felt skittish 20 years ago, but the presence of not just one but three well-rounded women of color in No Time to Die might point to a change of heart for the studio. Nomi joins Naomie Harris’ Eve Moneypenny, introduced in 2012’s Skyfall and not as the lovestruck secretary Bond fans had come to recognize her as in past eras. No Time to Die also introduces Ana de Armas as Paloma, a promising CIA recruit that gracefully skirts past the most misogynistic tropes of the series.
In many ways, Halle Berry’s Jinx paved the way for this new breed of Bond girl: a heroine who could confidently stand on her own. Still, it’s one thing to feature these women as supporting cast. They offer a refreshing glimpse into a world beyond James Bond, but a mere glimpse is not enough. An action franchise starring a woman of color is long overdue, and Lashana Lynch is just the person to lead one.
As only the fifth Black woman with a major role in Bond’s 50-year history, Lynch is fully aware of her character’s significance. The actor spoke to Inverse about the “archaic” idea that “Black narratives don’t sell” and her responsibility to help change that way of thinking. “I can’t have one Nomi in the cinema and no other Nomis for people to aspire to,” she continued. “We’ve been focusing on James Bond for so long. Who else is here?”
Daniel Craig’s Bond films helped to compound the progress that Bond girls of Brosnan’s time pushed forward. It’s been a slow kind of evolution, one that has never had the opportunity to fully take hold. But if Nomi were given her own spin-off, it could revolutionize the treatment of female characters in the series. It would make her character a worthy successor, not just to Bond, but to the Bond girls that audiences loved the most.
It might be too late for a spin-off for Jinx or for Mai Lin — played by Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies — but it’s never too late to honor their legacy and raise the standards of representation for women in future action movies.
MGM is apparently primed to reboot the Bond films, with the search for Craig’s replacement set to begin sometime next year. The studio’s zeal to start fresh again, especially after introducing characters with such potential, is troubling, to say the least. But if the demand for a spin-off falls on deaf ears again, it’s possible that Nomi could resurface as M one day, similar to Judi Dench’s transition from Brosnan’s era to Craig’s. It’s much less than Lynch deserves, but her impact on the Bond canon won’t be subdued so easily.
No Time to Die is currently in theaters.
About The Author
