Daniel Craig’s potential departure from the franchise has led to a lot of speculation about who could take up the 007 mantle next, with some lobbying hard for a change in ethnicity, sexuality, or gender, while others insist that Bond remain male, straight, and "suave." But maybe we’re thinking about this casting business all wrong. Maybe it’s time not just for a different actor as Bond, but also a different kind of Bond.
Saif Ali Khan is… Desi Bond
While Ian Fleming conceived of the character as English through and through, over the years we’ve had a Scottish Bond, a Welsh Bond, an Irish Bond, even an Australian Bond. So why not look to the one-time jewel in the Empire’s crown, and cast an Indian Bond? Plenty of Britons with Indian heritage--the country’s largest minority--would surely be he happy to see themselves represented on screen, and the studio would no doubt love to endear Bond to the world’s largest film audience. (Plus, it might help us forget Bond’s only trip to India thus far, Octopussy.) As the series’ producers prefer an actor with past spy experience (The Saint, Remington Steele, etc.), the first choice would have to be Saif Ali Khan, who starred in Agent Vinod as, essentially, an Indian James Bond. But Khan has dramatic range as well; he won plaudits for playing Iago in Omkara, an Indian adaptation of Othello, but was equally at home as a romantic comedy lead in Hum Tum (for which he won National Film Award for Best Actor). While most of Khan’s work is in Hindi, he’s done English-language films for Bollywood. All that remains is to see how he takes his martinis. [Mike Vago]
Sean Connery is… Elderly Bond
One reason that we get a new Bond every decade or so is that the superspy never ages, at least not permanently: Whatever wear and tear an actor brings to the character just by virtue of getting older with each movie is wiped clean with the casting of his replacement. But what if that trend was dramatically reversed? The Daniel Craig Bond movies have embraced continuity between entries and a more vulnerable take on 007--two qualities the producers could double down on by introducing an elderly version of Bond, grappling with the weight of his many years in the field and forced out of retirement for one last mission. Hey, it worked for Sherlock Holmes and Batman. And so long as we’re dreaming, why not bring the original, the incomparable, the one-and-only Sean Connery back for the role? Or failing that, Roger Moore? Hell, we’d settle for George Lazenby if it meant getting the chance to see a mortal version of this immortal icon. [A.A. Dowd]
Dev Patel is… Young Techie Bond
Over the years, Bond has been everything from campy to brooding, but the one thing he’s never been is young and nerdy. A reboot of sorts, this film casts Dev Patel as MI6’s youngest ever employee--a certified genius who serves as tech support for more established spies while dreaming of one day doing fieldwork himself. But when a nefarious villain takes out half the MI6 agents, Patel is promoted to 007 years ahead of schedule. The film charts his first few missions, which he faces with the kind of bumbling but formidable energy that only Patel can provide. In between assignments, his Bond attends regular training sessions with a skeptical combat-vet (Jason Isaacs as M) and butts heads with his own tech support (Karen Gillan as Q), the only one who can match his intellectual prowess. After years of Daniel Craig’s hyper-serious take on the character, Patel could be the one to insert some much-needed levity back into the Bond franchise. [Caroline Siede]
Kristen Stewart is… Queer Bond
Back in the late ’90s, Rupert Everett ruffled some feathers when he announced his intention to write and star in a movie centered on a gay James Bond. The project never took off, but after people picked up on sexual subtext between Daniel Craig’s Bond and Javier Bardem’s Silva in Skyfall, the question of whether 007 could be queer came up again. Roger Moore says he thinks Bond could never be gay or female, so he would probably bristle at the suggestion that Bond be both. But James Bond as a lesbian makes a lot of sense. The movie could keep the Bond girl trope, subverting it by making the characters queer and also giving them complicated relationships with the leading lady. The villain would definitely be her ex. And who better to bring the level of swagger necessary for a lesbian Bond than Kristen Stewart? While indies seem to be more her speed recently, Stewart has really come into her own and could easily front a Bond film with a subtle, alluring performance. She’d certainly rock the suits. [Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya]
Benedict Cumberbatch is… Intellectual Bond
Bond is often held up as a masculine paragon, even when he’s called out as a relic; the greater emotional depth of Daniel Craig’s take is still accompanied by his designation as a "blunt instrument." But at some point, variations on fights, shoot-outs, and car chases can become numbing, and casting a thinkier actor in the part could re-orient the character to better show him being, you know, good at his job. A focus on the more analytical side of Bond’s job (like Batman’s detective skills, rarely used on film) could temper the series’ tendency toward excess--and if this Bond did eventually get into physical scrapes, it would up the suspense quotient of the action scenes. Benedict Cumberbatch is the obvious suggestion for this job, but if there’s wariness about hewing too closely to his take on Sherlock Holmes, almost anyone else from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy could suffice for a tweedier, dweebier, Bond. [Jesse Hassenger]
Judi Dench and Emily Blunt are… Grand Dame Bond
The single point of sort of continuity between the silly (but enjoyable!) Pierce Brosnan Bonds and the serious (but entertaining!) Craig Bonds has been Judi Dench, who producers smartly allowed to reprise her role as M despite Casino Royale’s pointed reboot of the character. Skyfall gave Dench one of her best recent roles, freed of the usual elderly-shtick poppycock often doled out to older female actors. Why not continue that streak, and extend that bridge between very different versions of Bond, by casting Dench herself as the secret agent? Her Bond could be, like M, toward the end of her tenure on the job; as Melissa McCarthy’s Spy pointed out (in jest, but still), it actually makes sense for a secret agent to have a less expected cover than a suave, fashionable woman or man of mystery. If Dench doesn’t want to film a bunch of fight scenes, there are two easy workarounds: Give Bond a more cerebral edge and/or include flashbacks to a younger female Bond. Emily Blunt, everyone’s favorite fantasy casting for ass-kicking women, could do wonders in the part. [Jesse Hassenger]
- Courtesy: AV Club