I kind of get the feeling that if I went ahead and suggested that it’s time to retire James Bond that I might actually piss a few people off and get laughed at by several more in a very deprecating manner, but it’s a thought, isn’t it? Even by movie standards the guy isn’t indestructible, and he’s getting pretty old at this point anyway. But to chime in on the article that Ryan Scott from MovieWeb has concocted about making a Moneypenny spin-off, there’s a chance it could work, even if it’s not the greatest chance in the world. The reason I say this is that people are going to continuously focus on Bond since he’s been the main guy for so long that trying to go off and do something with another character might not catch on all that quickly. It could, as I could be wrong and people might actually want to see Naomie Harris as the titular character, but it doesn’t feel that way largely because Bond has been such a big deal throughout the years.
Let’s say this much, it would be an interesting idea to see the story to see things from Moneypenny’s side of things, especially with all she’s put up with in terms of dealing with Bond for so long. When you think about it Moneypenny has been kind of a sidekick character for a long time now, possibly too long, and considering that Harris has already played the character a couple of times it’s enough to wonder just whether or not she’ll be the one that’s actually up for the role or if a reboot will be set in place that will eliminate her from the running. After all Daniel Craig’s next Bond movie will be his last, so if Harris sticks around and manages to take this role it could be that she’s the only viable candidate for such a thing, and a lot of us already know that in Hollywood this is almost never the case since there are always at least a dozen or more individuals that could audition for a role. Who might be tapped is kind of an interesting proposition but at this point Harris seems like the best best considering that, as mentioned, she’s been there done that and could do it again if she really wanted to. Seeing Moneypenny actually in the field was a refreshing experience since throughout other Bond movies she’s been firmly stuck in the office helping other agents and hasn’t had much else to do but put up with Bond.
The character of Moneypenny has certainly changed with the casting of Harris since up until the role always went to white women, a fact that a lot of people have likely seen and pointed out. But personally if a person can act and the role wasn’t written in without any possibility of change, then who cares. Honestly, if you take a character such as Black Panther and make him into a white man people would freak the hell out, but if you take a character like Huck Finn and make him into a black boy then people should be having the same reaction since some of these roles are not as interchangeable as others. In the case of Moneypenny though it seems that there’s a lot of wiggle room when it comes to the passing of the torch. Plus, Naomie’s acting skills are easily good enough to make it possible for just about any fan to say to heck with who they are and what they look like and just accept them based on what they can do. That’s usually the best way to go about it since the story is still preserved, for the most part, and the players are there to make it look as professional as possible. The only real difficulty is going to be making the pitch for this movie and making it good enough that someone will actually say ‘okay’. Even having an Oscar-winning director looking at it shouldn’t be enough for people to suddenly go blind and deaf and not realize that the movie will take some work to make into something viable. Unfortunately it almost seems as though this might be the way some folks are thinking.
There’s nothing to say ‘don’t make it’, but there is more than enough to cause a yellow light to blink and advise caution before rushing into a project that might be shot down by fans and critics alike without hesitation. There’s enough of a story to develop there, and definitely a good chance at getting some very talented people on board to make it work. But trying it out on an audience that’s already been saturated with enough Bond material that they might feel a bit confused seems like an inevitability. Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire has a bit more to say on the subject.
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