Meet Lashana Lynch, your new 007

Ever since Daniel Craig announced he would be leaving the Bond franchise after Bond 25, speculation has been wildly rampant on who would be filling his shoes. For a while, former Game of Thrones star Richard Madden seemed to be in the running, but now, thanks to confirmation from The Daily Mail, we know who is taking on the designation of 007, and it’s probably not who you thought it would be.

According to the publication, British actress Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel) will become 007 in the upcoming 25th installment in the James Bond film franchise. However, before you get too angry and storm off to social media to rage tweet about a woman of color landing the role traditionally reserved for a Caucasian male, Lynch isn’t the new James Bond. She’s the MI6 agent who inherits his number.

HOLLYWOOD, CA – MARCH 04: Actor Lashana Lynch attends the Los Angeles World Premiere of Marvel Studios’ “Captain Marvel” at Dolby Theatre on March 4, 2019 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

An inside contact described the scene when Lynch is revealed as the new 007: Bond 25 opens with James Bond enjoying retirement in Jamaica, but gets called back to London by M (Ralph Fiennes), and that’s when the magic happens.

“There is a pivotal scene at the start of the film where M says ‘Come in 007’, and in walks Lashana who is black, beautiful and a woman,” they said. “It’s a popcorn-dropping moment. Bond is still Bond but he’s been replaced as 007 by this stunning woman.”

"Bond, of course, is sexually attracted to the new female 007 and tries his usual seduction tricks, but is baffled when they don’t work on a brilliant, young black woman who basically rolls her eyes at him and has no interest in jumping into his bed. Well, certainly not at the beginning."

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According to Daily Mail’s source, the term “Bond Girl” has been banned from set and replaced by “Bond Woman.” That change seems to have come from Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Amazon’s Fleabag, Killing Eve, L3-37 in Solo: A Star Wars Story) who co-wrote Bond 25 with Scott Z. Burns and director Cary Joji Fukunaga. Scott Z. Burns. One of Waller-Bridge’s roles on the film was to make sure it was culturally relevant.

“There’s been a lot of talk about whether or not Bond is relevant now because of who he is and the way he treats women,” she said. “I think that’s b******s. I think he’s absolutely relevant now. [The franchise] has just got to grow. It has just got to evolve, and the important thing is that the film treats the women properly. He doesn’t have to. He needs to be true to his character.”

It also follows the casting news that Halle Bailey had been cast in the role of Ariel for Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, in another move for expanding who can be portrayed on film. As you might have guessed, Twitter was bursting with opinions. First, the good:

And now the bad:

Do you want to know why you won’t see a “WonderMan” in films? Because it’s 2019, and cinema has been dominated by Caucasian men for too many years to count. James Bond is a fictional character whose agent number just happens to be 007. If Lashana Lynch does become the new Bond in the 26th movie, then how does that affect all the films that came before?

No, your childhood isn’t ruined, and just because you’ve loved a franchise for years doesn’t mean you should spew sexist and otherwise nasty rhetoric about a casting choice you haven’t even seen on the big screen yet. So, if you’re still angry about 007 becoming a black woman, then you’re just going to have to deal with it, because actors like Lashana Lynch are going to be the face of a movement long overdue for its time in the spotlight.

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