Daniel Craig has finally said a fond farewell to the role of James Bond, with the character meeting his conclusive end during the franchise's latest installment, No Time to Die. After playing the iconic spy for over a decade and a half and five films (some of which were considered among the best Bond movies), it's time for a new secret agent to step into the shoes of the world's greatest double-0. There's been a lot of debate over the past few years about who should take up the mantle with Craig stepping down. However, that might not be the question that audiences should be asking themselves.
Instead, fans of the franchise should be asking -- does the next James Bond project have to be a movie? Appearing in 26 films and spanning six decades, James Bond has gotten his claim-to-fame thanks to his success on the cinematic screen, but what if the double-0 agent decided to shake things up and make the leap over to episodic television? Several franchises have recently done it and seen success (the MCU and Star Wars, to name a couple), and James Bond is assuredly well-known enough for a television show to gather viewers. A television show could work well for the franchise for many reasons.
It Worked for Jack Ryan & Jack Reacher
The MCU and Star Wars might be two franchises that don't bear many similarities with James Bond, but how about two series that share practically everything -- enter Jack Ryan and Jack Reacher. Initially, Jack Ryan was a film franchise that ran from 1990 to 2014, with several prominent actors playing the titular role. Jack Reacher has a similar story, and the franchise only produced two films in 2012 and 2016, with Tom Cruise playing the main character.
Both franchises decided to take their talents to television (ironically, both being distributed by Prime Video), with John Krasinski taking over as Jack Ryan and Alan Ritchson landing the role of Jack Reacher. Thanks to the series, both franchises have seen a resurgence among fans and critics. Season 3 of Jack Ryan is set to debut sometime this year, and Reacher was renewed for a second season after the first became the first Amazon series to top the Nielsen's streaming chart. Since James Bond has such similar material compared to these two franchises, perhaps the double-0 should get Amazon on the phone.
It Could Be an Anthology Series
Say James Bond does become a tv show -- what would it be about? Since the world is torn on who should play the next James Bond after Daniel Craig, why doesn't the franchise create an anthology series with a different James Bond starring in every episode? The episodes themselves would revolve around different missions that Bond would go on. An anthology series with a different Bond every episode would allow audiences to pick and choose which performance they liked the most. This would also let actors and actresses try out for the role while still getting the public's feedback and opinion on which one they thought did the best. Not only would each episode feel like its own miniature James Bond movie and allow fans to have a say in who the next James Bond will be, but it would also take a lot of pressure off the studio in terms of picking an acceptable actor to take over the character.
It Doesn’t Have to Be a Bond Series
Even if the franchise decides to ignore all of this and keep cranking out 007 movies with a brand-new Bond at the helm, that doesn't mean that the franchise couldn't still expand into television. After all, the last Bond movie featured a new agent in the 007 role (Lashana Lynch as Nomi), and Bond is only one agent of the entire MI6. So, if the studio was dead-set on making more James Bond films, they could still wander into the televised world by creating a series revolving around all other double-0 agents at MI6. Bond might be the most famous, but he can't be the only interesting secret agent in the organization.
Along those lines, the series could also wander into unexplored territory like Bond's past or how he became a double-0 in the first place. Or perhaps a series revolving around M and how she became the head of MI6. We learned from Skyfall that she didn't acquire her role by being a compliant well-mannered lady, so it stands to reason that a show about her past would include some action-packed sequences that longtime fans of the franchise would love to see.