Whereas he provides off extra “extraordinarily divorced” power than we’re used to seeing from the everyday 007 baddie, the parallels between Bezos and the common Bond villain are, not less than, fairly humorous. His bald head, immense wealth gained by ruthless industrial ways, obsession with area, want to govern international occasions by know-how, and disdain for world governments… Bezos doesn’t simply resemble a Bond supervillain; he’s the sort of “protected, however predictable” Bond villain one in every of Amazon’s algorithms might produce primarily based on all obtainable information.
However Bezos’ supervillain credentials lately took a darker, extra fascinating flip in ways in which might immediately impression the Bond collection. His resolution to dictate the editorial path of The Washington Publish (which Bezos purchased in 2013) not solely recollects the maniacal machinations of Tomorrow By no means Dies villain Elliot Carver (a scrumptious Jonathan Pryce); it raises severe questions on Bezos’ want to make use of influential media to additional his personal agendas.
To be honest, Amazon has produced and accredited all kinds of initiatives that don’t essentially characterize the views of its founder; they even often mock his actions and the tradition that permits them. Simply have a look at what The Boys will get as much as. But it’s instantly so much more durable to image a brilliant future for the traditional Bond villain archetype of previous at a time when legacy media is more and more being weaponized in service of that imprecise battle referred to as the “tradition wars.”
However the way forward for Bond villainy is about greater than Jeff Bezos. The Daniel Craig Bond period noticed these motion pictures pivot away from extra grandiose supervillains with massive personalities, elaborate lairs, and campier aesthetics. The villains of Craig’s tenure typically had a private connection to Bond and have been sometimes extra grounded. That shift represented each the need to make the Bond motion pictures barely extra serialized and the final cultural shift towards blockbusters that felt extra “reasonable.” Each 2006’s On line casino Royale and 2005’s Batman Begins rebooted these collection’ after the height of their silliness and made them acceptable to take pleasure in amongst those that apparently see themselves as very severe folks.
Whereas I and others have argued that we might use some extra absurd Bond motion pictures once more, it’s not clear if the cultural pendulum has swung far sufficient in that path fairly but. What is evident is that the casting and characterization of the following Bond villain might inform us quite a bit in regards to the tone and inventive path of every part that follows.
Will we now have one other barely extra grounded Bond villain with ties to the character’s previous who helps weave an ongoing story? Will James Bond go “lone wolf” in opposition to a corrupt authorities he can not belief in a storyline that may completely don’t have anything to do with any billionaire’s beliefs? Will that villain have a lair? Will they’ve an allegiance to an actual nation or political ideology? What is going to they consider algorithms? Will a veteran actress lastly get the prospect to have a bit of enjoyable as an over-the-top foil?
