Who will be the next James Bond? Ever Since Daniel Craig left the role, it’s been the question on everyone’s lips. While fans cast the next 007, they are looking for an essence, a je ne sais quoi, in each of the actors they choose. Bond has to be intimidating yet charming; strong but smooth; professional but able to crack a joke at the right moment. Daniel Craig seemed perfect for the role when he brought charisma to the character that now seems difficult to match. But as fans look for a replacement, that alchemy that Daniel Craig had in playing James Bond might have followed him into a new role: Benoit Blanc.
Knives Out had one of the most unexpected characters at its center. Benoit Blanc is a capable detective that is morally unbiased and determined to find the truth. He’s also surprisingly witty. With the James Bond franchise recycled a million times, fans looking for something new might find it in Benoit Blanc. What Daniel Craig brings to the role might successfully fill that void in the zeitgeist that James Bond has left.
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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is the upcoming sequel to Knives Out, and Netflix has already ordered another movie in the franchise. The new James Bond might not be James Bond at all.
Bond vs. Blanc: A Comparison of the Daniel Craig Characters
Lionsgate
When we heard Daniel Craig’s smooth British voice replaced with a gentlemanly southern twang in Knives Out, most of us were very surprised. After all, Craig has hardly performed in anything except James Bond flicks these past 20 years. Seeing him play Benoit Blanc might have been a bit jarring initially, but he fit easily into the role. Blanc is focused, intelligent and charismatic, all the things Craig was as James Bond. Although he isn’t driving Aston Martins and chasing bad guys across construction sites, Benoit Blanc still pursues the same thing Bond was after – justice.
The characters are quite similar in that way. Although the genres of a spy thriller and an Agatha Christie-style whodunit are quite distinctive, the character at the center of both is, first and foremost, someone looking for the truth in a sea of lies. James Bond is unraveling the mystery behind a series of villains threatening the British government. Benoit Blanc is peeling back the layers of lies that lead him to the true events that resulted in a death.
What Daniel Craig brought to the role of James Bond was an intensity both in charm and physicality, and many fans of the franchise grew up with Craig knowing him as the Bond of their generation. And as Craig matures, so do his roles and his audience. Viewers who saw Casino Royale when they were 13 aren’t looking for the same things in movies nowadays. They want more of that Bond intrigue and fewer of those Bond explosions. What the crowd gets with Knives Out and Glass Onion is all the mystery with none of the excessive violence.
Knives Out and James Bond
Netflix
Benoit Blanc is 007 for the refined viewer. Where Bond movies had their plots executed by evil villains planning to take over the world, Knives Out mysteries are perpetrated by 3-dimensional characters with relatable, human motives. And the movies are written in a way that plays on the classic tropes and expectations in their genre. Knives Out is self-aware in a way that Bond could only be if it broke fully away from the Ian Fleming novels.
It’s a movie that isn’t necessarily formulaic, but it’s one that must check the right boxes in order to be considered a Bond film. Knives Out is written to be a playground of mystery clichés while satisfying the viewer with a dramatic story that has some intellectual depth. James Bond gives viewers action and romance while resolving to focus on its high-stakes conflict and visual spectacles. In other words, Knives Out is to Watchmen, as James Bond is to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Depending on what a viewer might like in a particular movie will, of course, speak to their taste. But someone might find themselves getting tired of a singular trope over and over again in the way that some fans are currently experiencing Marvel fatigue.
Daniel Craig brings impressive magic to Benoit Blanc in an alternative setting to the fast-paced spy thriller. But his presence and attitude towards acting still scratch the part of your brain that James Bond used to. He is still a tough, capable rogue that compromises nothing in pursuit of his goal, but he’s deeper than just a regular action shot. So, if you are feeling some emptiness without another James Bond in your life, and are willing to try something new, maybe give Benoit Blanc a shot in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery releases in theaters November 23-29 and on Netflix December 23, 2022.
