Léa Seydoux's Bond girl will be back for Bond 25
Any hope for a female James Bond was quickly squashed earlier this year by Barbara Broccoli, as the longtime producer said the superspy has always been a dude, and will most likely remain one. Fine, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have kickass Bond girls. The woman who most recently fought alongside Bond—and then, of course, fell helplessly into his bed—was Léa Seydoux’s Dr. Madeleine Swann, and she’ll be back for Bond 25.
Cary Fukunaga, who took over directing duties after Danny Boyle exited the 25th Bond film, confirmed to The Daily Mail that Seydoux’s Spectre psychologist will be back for the next movie. The True Detective and Maniac director said Spectre faves like Naomie Harris’ Moneypenny, Ben Whishaw’s Q, and Ralph Fiennes’ M, who took over for Judi Dench after Skyfall, will also return for Daniel Craig’s final 007 outing. “Why wouldn’t I have the best coming back?!,” the director told the publication. Amen.
What’s most interesting about Seydoux’s return is that it would make her the first actress to play a Bond girl in more than one movie. (Maud Adams, of course, appeared in multiple Bond films, but as different characters.) It’s also an opportunity to improve the Bond girl: Over the course of the 50-plus-year franchise, the women have often been little more than attractive sex objects and obstacles for Bond to navigate before moving onto the next.
Not even the women of the forgettable and bland Spectre were worthwhile. Sam Mendes’ sequel committed the heinous crime of wasting Monica Bellucci, and Seydoux’s Swann almost surpassed the typical Bond girl archetype, but she too turned out to be a disappointment—she tells Bond she won’t be another woman who falls into his arms before literally doing just that in a random post-train fight sex scene. Hopefully, Fukunaga, who’s directing from a script by Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, will give Seydoux more to do than make out with Craig.
The still-untitled 25th Bond installment will arrive in theaters in February 2020.