Spectre. Ian Fleming’s famous super-spy has been played by seven actors over his twenty-five big-screen appearances. With each change, the tone of the James Bond movies and the attitude of the character has changed, from Pierce Brosnan’s winking, self-aware 007 to Timothy Dalton’s harder-edged, more grounded take on the character.
However, even after Daniel Craig’s time as 007 showed a darker, more human side of the character, some things never change in the Bond franchise. Classic Bond villains like the shadowy and oft-hidden Blofeld have cropped up in every iteration of the franchise, changing to fit the tone of each new Bond. While Blofeld was an unseen, threatening presence during Connery’s paranoid Bond era, he became a cat-stroking, Dr. Evil-inspiring supervillain with the arrival of Roger Moore’s campier, more over-the-top 007.
Now, Christoph Waltz’s Blofeld has become the first version of the character to boast a concrete personal connection to Bond, as befits a version of the villain featured in the most personal and self-serious 007 movies so far. Not every fan was happy with the revelation that Blofeld is Bond’s secret brother, but Spectre’s big twist did establish a precedent by recasting a famous villain from the franchise and giving them a canon connection to 007. As such, once Craig moves on from the series and subsequent 007 movies return to a lighter, more escapist tone, the next installments could bring back a variety of classic Bond villains.
Daniel Craig’s Bond Villains Were Highlights
The Daniel Craig Bond movies began to come to life during a time when the post 9/11 cinematic landscape was filled with an abundance of doom and gloom, and as a result, the franchise took on a darker and less playful tone than ever before. Although Craig’s debut in the role, 2006’s Quantum of Solace baddie was a damp squib, but broadly speaking, Bond’s villains have been as reliably entertaining as ever and the franchise has been able to keep this element agreeably over-the-top.
The Bond Franchise Has A Rogue’s Gallery
The fact that Bond’s baddies have kept their silly charm during Craig’s grim tenure proves that Bond could bring back poorly-timed Safin of No Time To Die). As such, bringing back these corrupt industrialists and double-crossing rival spies could give the 007 series a fun, nostalgic edge without sacrificing real-world relevance.
Bond is one of few franchises that boasts so many famous villains that each new movie could reinvent not one, but numerous old faces, cashing in on nostalgia while also simultaneously offering something new and unique. The success of both the Marvel and DC cinematic universes proves that viewers are not averse to seeing new versions of familiar villains provided they come with a new twist upon their return. Blofeld’s character revision has already proven this is possible, meaning nothing is stopping the franchise from returning to old villains in new guises.
Bond’s Villains Set The Tone For Each Movie
From the Goldeneye viewers to examine the internal logic of Bond’s MI6, poking some meta fun at the story mechanics of the series in the process.
Similarly, Yaphet Kotto’s Kananga is one Bond villain unlikely to be recast any time soon, but this is as much because the franchise does not need the goofiness of Live and Let Die as it is due to the deep dated politics of the villain. From Waltz’s legitimately threatening but theatrical Blofeld to the charismatic, larger-than-life Auric Goldfinger, every Bond villain has created a unique tone ranging from austere to outright farcical. Since the Bond franchise will need a tonal overhaul, holding on to familiar villains would let the creators give viewers an idea of what town to expect from Bond’s screen adventures. With the end of Craig's tenure, the sight of a reinvented Rosa Klebb could mean a dark ordeal lay ahead for the spy in James Bond 26, whereas an updated version of Richard Kiel’s iconic Jaws would mean that the next 007 was in for a sillier, more out-there story this time around.
