Summary
- Daniel Craig's portrayal of James Bond in Casino Royale was a refreshing departure from previous iterations, with a darker tone and grounded action.
- Despite the reboot, later films in the franchise reverted back to old tropes, showing an inability to move on and evolve.
- Bond needs to move away from the legacy of Connery's era, embracing originality and character development to retain credibility and attract modern audiences.
After a decade and a half of playing the titular secret agent in the James Bond franchise, Daniel Craig never quite managed to separate himself from the character’s origins. He was a controversial casting when he was first announced to play Bond in 2005, but he quickly allayed any fears about his potential with his phenomenal performance in the critically-acclaimed Casino Royale a year later. It seemed the franchise had ditched the old tropes that had made it so vulnerable to mockery and parody, which had been best exemplified in the Johnny English and Austin Powers series that had been released since the start of the 21st century.
Casino Royale was a breath of fresh air that boldly left behind a lot of the iconography that had defined the James Bond franchise. The gadgets were mostly absent, the tone was far darker, and the action was grounded and yet still impressive. Craig’s iteration of the character was also rugged and emotionally vulnerable, the latter being an aspect rarely visited in James Bond. Yet despite that the canon was rebooted, Craig’s later installments fell back into the old ways of the franchise, reintroducing traditional Bond formulae and elements that harked back to Connery’s era. It showed the franchise’s inability to move on – even when the opportunity was right there.
Daniel Craig Was Bond’s Best Chance Of Leaving The Connery Era Behind – But Didn’t
Even after Craig’s final Bond film, No Time To Die, audiences generally remarked that he was one of the best incarnations of the character. In reality, however, EON and the writing teams behind each of his films had the chance to completely regenerate the franchise and elevate it to levels never attained before, in turn making him the greatest. By rebooting the canon with the origin story in Casino Royale – a creative decision that had not been made before in the franchise – there was suddenly the potential for the character to step out of the shadows of the five actors who had previously played it.
It’s arguable that Craig was let down by the writers’ decision to gradually reintroduce the franchise to its old overused tropes. Casino Royale did not feel like a James Bond film at all. Like Timothy Dalton’s The Living Daylights and License To Kill, it was bold, adventurous, and proudly subverted its audience’s expectations. The opportunity to keep the franchise moving in such a way was there and without pressure to revert to the boring, unfunny stereotypes associated with many previous iterations, but best showcased in Pierce Brosnan’s final James Bond film Die Another Day. Yet EON decided against making Craig the trailblazer for a brand-new era of the series.
If Daniel Craig’s Bond Couldn’t Eclipse Connery, Maybe No 007 Actor Can
With the exception of George Lazenby (whose performance in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was his first major acting role), the James Bond character was generally handed to prestigious actors with an established skillset. Daniel Craig, although relatively young at the time of his casting, was no different, having appeared in numerous acclaimed films, although they had not made him a household name. Nonetheless, his acting abilities were demonstrated straight away in Casino Royale, where he was granted the freedom to portray the character’s emotional instability and vulnerability in a way that had never been given before. Bond was suddenly an interesting character, and Craig was capable of showing it.
By his fifth film, however, Daniel Craig was ready to quit James Bond, and he made it quite clear that he had been for a few years. Though the writers tried again to explore James Bond’s capacity for romantic and familial love in No Time To Die, it was too little too late because the franchise had already reverted away from this in the preceding films. Craig, an acclaimed actor on screen and stage, could not fully distance his version of the character from the cheesy, invulnerable, and unrealistically quick-witted womanizer of old. Even with James Bond’s death in No Time To Die, the character felt more closely aligned with previous versions.
Does James Bond NEED To Move On From Connery’s 007?
The legacy of the Sean Connery era of James Bond is mixed. Dr. No rewrote the rule book about what a spy film could and couldn't do, paving the way for countless films and franchises, including ones that have been released and been popular in the 21st century. On the other hand, Connery's films are littered with sexism, racism, and unrelatable characters who are distinguished by their ridiculousness. In the modern movie world, franchises as big as Bond cannot rely on the elements that made Connery's era so memorable because they are often what made them problematic as well. There are signs that moving away from that era could be beneficial for Bond.
The James Bond franchise has always made money, but the ones with Daniel Craig as the title character did exceptionally well at the box office. The mockery and parody that began with Spy Hard in the mid-90s and continues with the ongoing FX series Archer has forced Bond to evolve, and it’s done that with success. Even with it reverting to some of its old tropes in the later Craig movies, it managed to retain originality, which included exploring the character's humanity with greater sincerity and detail. With the movie business so saturated by franchisement, audiences need relatable characters that do not simply spout one-liners and appear invulnerable.
Because of this, it appears that Bond needs to avoid the poorly aged clichés of its old installments. Without more focus on character development and the implications of Bond’s actions, the franchise will most likely lose its credibility. It already faces an uphill battle at the box office after the beloved Daniel Craig’s departure from James Bond, but there will be intrigue when the next actor steps up. It would be quite remarkable if the next person to play Bond might be definitively proclaimed as the best James Bond ever (without constant deference to Connery), and EON has to make bold creative decisions if they want to see this happen.
