What Denis Villeneuve’s Bond 26 Needs to Change After Daniel Craig’s Era

Denis Villeneuve is directing the next James Bondmovie. While there’s still scant information on the latest entry, the film already aims to change a few things from Daniel Craig’s era of Bond.

Recently, writerSteven Knight revealed that the new movie would change up the world of James Bond. According to Knight, the new Bond would likely feature a newer, more grounded style. While interesting comments alone, Villeneuve’s past films also showcase exactly what should change in his new take on Bond.

Denis Villeneuve’s Bond movie should recapture thriller vibes

Villeneuve is no stranger to the world of action movies, specifically with a lean to the thriller genre. It’s here where the legendary director should look to for the next Bond movie. Daniel Craig’s era of Bond was best known for featuring some massive set pieces and big, bombastic action sequences. While that’s still likely to appear in some way in the next movie, it would be nice to see Villeneuve’s Bond return to what he’s best known for: being a master spy.

Previous iterations of Bond have shown the character’s exploits as a spy at the forefront. Recent movies, while still extremely well done and enjoyable, have leaned much more into the world of action movies. They’ve seen Bond become more akin to Ethan Hunt from Mission: Impossible than a debonair master of espionage. While budget and the era past movies were made in played a huge part, they also helped define the character of Bond on-screen, and inform what the character was all about.

Villeneuve’s history in the thriller genre is a seamless fit in this regard. Past movies like Sicario, Prisoners, and even something like Blade Runner 2049 show his ability to not only showcase action on a large scale, but do it with a ton of heightened drama and emotion. Sicario is the perfect example of this. It’s a film which features a litany of incredibly tense action sequences that, when imagined with a James Bond lens, would be perfect.

Whenever we get more info on the new James Bond movie, it will be interesting to see just how different the direction Villeneuve and Knight take the franchise in. The goal for Amazon is to not only deliver a movie that feels new, but does so without losing much of what made the Bond movies feel so unique.