Yes, Lashana Lynch is inheriting James Bond’s 007 title in No Time To Die

It’s official: Lashana Lynch’s character Nomi “”inherits the 007 title” from James Bond in No Time To Die. Lynch discusses what she’s bringing to the role:

Around this time last year, back before anyone knew what the coronavirus was and we were all laboring under the delusion that we would get to see the new James Bond film in 2020, it came out that Captain Marvel star Lashana Lynch would star opposite Daniel Craig, who was returning for a fifth and final time (so he says) as Bond. Moreover, it was rumored that Lynch would be playing a secret agent with the codename 007, which had long belonged to James Bond.

Predictably, this cause some ugly backlash online, with people holding up the news as evidence of why “men today are so weak,” crying “reverse racism,” and more: they played all the hits.

No, the backlash didn’t make any sense — Daniel Craig is still playing James Bond; the story of this particular movie just involves someone else taking over his numerical designation, and the movies get rebooted all the time anyway — but they rarely do. At the time, Lynch took it in stride, although she did delete her social accounts for a while. “It doesn’t dishearten me,” she said. “It makes me feel quite sad for some people because their opinions, they’re not even from a mean place — they’re actually from a sad place. It’s not about me. People are reacting to an idea, which has nothing to do with my life.”

Now, Bazaar has confirmed that Lynch’s character Nomi “inherits the 007 title while Bond himself is in exile.” That could result in another round of backlash, but Lynch seems once again in a good state of mind to deal with it. “I am one Black woman,” she told Bazaar, “if it were another Black woman cast in the role, it would have been the same conversation, she would have got the same attacks, the same abuse. I just have to remind myself that the conversation is happening and that I’m a part of something that will be very, very revolutionary.”

And Lynch sounds determined to bring her unique perspective to the role. “A character that is too slick, a cast-iron figure? That’s completely against what I stand for,” she said. “I didn’t want to waste an opportunity when it came to what Nomi might represent. I searched for at least one moment in the script where Black audience members would nod their heads, tutting at the reality but glad to see their real life represented. In every project I am part of, no matter the budget or genre, the Black experience that I’m presenting needs to be 100 per cent authentic.”

Meanwhile, another newcomer to the Bond franchise is Mr. Robot star Rami Malek, who will be playing the villain Safin, a scarred former SPECTRE assassin concocting a diabolical plan that will kill millions of people if successful. “Once we got into Christoph Waltz/Blofeld territory, you can’t go small again,” director Cary Joji Fukunaga told GQ. “We had to think bigger. It’s tricky because you don’t want to make a cliché super villain, but you have to make someone that’s threatening not onl

Christoph Waltz will return in No Time to Die as Blofeld — traditionally the biggest and baddest of the Bond villains — but Safin will take center stage. Some fans think Safin might actually be another iconic villain from the franchise — Dr. No, the very first Bond baddie — but Malek isn’t saying. “That’s interesting. I’m not going to bite on that, but I do think it’s interesting. They’ll just have to wait and see.”

Assuming the virus cooperates, No Time To Die will be out in theaters on April 2, 2021. We’ll see if that date sticks.

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