In the Craig era, that certainly changed to a degree with Sam Mendes directing two 007 films, Skyfall and Spectre, but only after a franchise veteran like Martin Campbell set the tone in Craig’s debut, Casino Royale. Barbara and Wilson also then had a public falling out with Danny Boyle, who at one point was attached to helm No Time to Die.
In other ways though, it’s a fair question to wonder how much of a departure this might be from recent James Bond films. During the Craig era, beginning with Mendes’ two contributions specifically, the series veered toward a more elevated (or detractors might say precious) tone and aesthetic, with the films also getting increasingly dour until they climaxed with James Bond dying to save a child and mother he unwittingly abandoned. In other words, they were not “fun” movies, extended Ana de Armas cameo sequences notwithstanding.
As much as I admire Villeneuve’s body of work, with Arrival specifically being something of an underrated masterpiece, I also would hesitate to use the word “fun” to describe it. And frankly, a lighter touch is exactly what the Bond movies need after spending the last 19 years and counting in the shadow of Craig’s grittier interpretation.
To be sure, when Craig’s Bond launched in 2006 it felt like a jolt of kinetic energy that the franchise desperately needed as well. In many respects Pierce Brosnan remains the most perfectly obviously casting of Bond the franchise has yet enjoyed, but the jovial and lighthearted dynamic of his tenure felt out of touch in the years immediately following 9/11 (not to mention an unfortunately dire final film in Die Another Day). Yet the intuition to radically change tone and tenor was always a remarkable instinct that the Broccoli family managed to pass from one generation to the next.
Most folks forget this now, but Die Another Day was a huge hit in 2002 and the highest grossing Bond movie ever (not accounting for inflation). It was relatively well received by critics at the time, and Brosnan was so popular in the role that no less than Quentin Tarantino wanted to cast him after DAD in a Casino Royale reboot set in the 1960s. It was hard at the time to picture anyone else in the tuxedo. Barbara Broccoli could see Craig in it, however. So she ignored focus testing and pursued a casting that was met with vitriolic disgust and contempt in the British tabloids (“Blond Blond?!” they seemed to cry in unison).
The change in direction with a hard reboot reminiscent of what Christopher Nolan did barely a year earlier in Batman Begins proved apropos and set the table for what was to come. We’ve had five movies since then, released across 16 years, and just as Brosnan in turn felt fresh after the grumpy and poorly received Timothy Dalton era in the late ‘80s, it might be time to return to the lighter touch that traditionally has been 007’s bread and butter.
