One of the candidates to take over as James Bond now that Daniel Craig has hung up his tuxedo claims that the character has changed and is no longer the womaniser that he once was.
To be fair, it was a bit ridiculous back in the old days, wasn’t it?
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Like, come on 007 – you’ve got a job to do, stop thinking with your trousers and get back to averting whatever global predicament you’ve been asked to intervene with this time.
Nowadays, he’s a much grittier character who is less interested in getting himself entangled in five or six romantic trysts every single day than he is about killing bad guys and jumping motorcycles off stuff.
We’ve largely got Daniel Craig’s interpretation of the character to thank for that.
Now, with Craig out of the film franchise following No Time to Die, it’s left to the next person – whoever that is – to put their own stamp on Bond.
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One of the frontrunners is Welsh actor Luke Evans.
Evans, 43, who you might remember from Fast & Furious 6 or The Hobbit amongst other things, has spoken about Bond’s more relatable love life these days.
In truth, during the final Bond film he only had one romantic attachment with Madeleine Swann, played by Lea Seydoux.
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On that, Evans said: “We’re not in the Roger Moore [era] where he sleeps with five women per film, that’s not really what he’s about anymore.”
He went on to argue that most people are ‘more interested in the spectacle, the story’ than whether Bond manages to charm several women along the way.
That’s probably a good thing overall for the quality of the films, at least.
Evans had previously remarked: “I don’t know what the current temperature is with audiences, whether they care enough to worry about what James Bond does in the bedroom.”
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Yep, it’s 2022.
We can probably put aside some of the more tired and dated elements of Bond’s character from yesteryear.
That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a place for Roger Moore, Sean Connery and the rest of the actors’ portrayal, but times change, and people’s interests evolve and move on.
After that last question, the interviewer asked Evans – who is gay – whether that applied to Bond’s sexuality or that of the actor playing him.
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“Both, I suppose,” he said.
“[My sexuality] hasn’t had any impact on any of the roles I’ve played, my slate is so diverse, so varied in such a brilliant way.
“I’ve played everything and no one seems to have a problem with that.”
One thing we do know is that Evans is obviously super-keen to have a crack at the role.
He’s said in the past that he would ‘jump’ at the chance.
Also in the frame are actors such as Tom Hardy, Tom Hiddleston, James Norton, Rege-Jean Page, Henry Cavill and Idris Elba.
It’s going to be a while before we find out, as the reinvention process will take time.
Producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson have confirmed that it will be two years before any filming starts for another Bond movie.
“There isn’t a script and we can’t come up with one until we decide how we’re going to approach the next film because, really, it’s a reinvention of Bond,” she said.
“We’re reinventing who he is and that takes time.”
Topics: James Bond, TV and Film, Celebrity, Daniel Craig
Tom Wood