After multiple COVID-induced delays, James Bond is back. No Time to Die finally hits theaters in just over two weeks, with the trailers promising a super stylish, globetrotting action-adventure that looks to be a fitting farewell for Daniel Craig’s excellent Bond. But one long-running source of discussion about the movie is new character Nomi, played by Captain Marvel star Lashana Lynch.
Word has it the film opens with Craig’s Bond in retirement. He no longer has his license to kill and is living a relatively peaceful life in Jamaica with his psychologist girlfriend Madeleine (Léa Seydoux). Naturally, he’s soon dragged back into the world of espionage, but he finds things have changed.
After Bond quit, Nomi was given the vacant 007 codename and is busy making a reputation for herself. Trailers indicate that she’s a force to be reckoned with, and none too pleased about some crusty old dinosaur showing up to steal her thunder.
It should be underlined that Lynch isn’t “the new James Bond”, but an original character with the 007 codename. That hasn’t stopped tabloids billing her as Craig’s successor in the franchise, which inevitably generated a lot of rage. Now, in a new interview with The Guardian, Lynch gave her thoughts on this:
“The response was generally positive, but there were some very personal messages to me, like Insta DMs and Twitter and just conversations that my friends had heard or overheard on the tube that were really mean, dark and reminiscent of an age I wasn’t even born in, where women and black people weren’t allowed to move in certain spaces. So it also reminded me about the work that I still have to do to try to change the world in a little way that I know how.”
You don’t have to dig too far to find racists upset about Lynch being in the movie, and they’re likely to increase in volume over the next few weeks. Let’s hope Nomi kicks so much ass she shuts them up.
No Time to Die hits theaters on 8 October (30 September in the UK).
