James Bond's No Time To Die Death Scene Quietly Set Up A Futuristic 007 Spinoff

Jun 01, 2023

Daniel Craig's James Bond famously died in No Time To Die, but his final scene teased a potential 007 spinoff that would be set in the future.

James Bond's future might hang in the balance while updates on the new actor remain eerily quiet, but Daniel Craig's final No Time To Die scene quietly paved the way for a 007 spinoff actually set in the future. Eon's James Bond movies have always dabbled in futurism. Beginning with 1964's Goldfinger, the series introduced a stream of increasingly outlandish gadgets that progressed from mildly plausible to brazenly ridiculous. Typically, the closer James Bond movies edge toward sci-fi, the more backlash they receive. Moonraker was a blatant attempt to capitalize on Star Wars fever, while Brosnan's invisible car forced Daniel Craig's era to strip away 007's arsenal of gadgets entirely.

What comes next after No Time To Die concluded Daniel Craig's tenure as Bond remains unclear. Following Amazon's purchase of MGM, and its resulting co-ownership of the James Bond IP, speculation is rife that 007 will follow the same route as numerous other big franchises and expand via movie and TV spinoffs. Eon's Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli have resisted the idea of Bond spinoffs previously, but with so many major properties diversifying onto streaming platforms, and with Prime Video currently a major consideration for Amazon, some form of Bond-related spinoff may be inevitable sooner or later. Fortunately, No Time To Die laid the groundwork.

No Time To Die introduces Mathilde Swann, who - somewhat remarkably, considering 007's track record in the bedroom - is the spy's first official offspring in movie canon. After Bond meets the wrong end of a missile, Léa Seydoux's Madeleine Swann closes his final chapter by telling Mathilde, "I'm going to tell you a story about a man. His name was Bond... James Bond." This poignant closing line conjures images of a young girl raised on stories of her heroic spy father and all the action-packed deeds he accomplished - albeit a heavily edited version for younger ears.

Additionally, one of No Time To Die's central themes is James Bond's past coming back to haunt him. Whether because she aspires to emulate the hero her mother described in bedtime stories, or because she's the daughter of James Bond and the granddaughter of a high-ranking SPECTRE operative, it seems certain that Mathilde Swann will one day enter the spy game, willingly or otherwise. Amazon's content brains will likely be smelling spinoff potential in No Time To Die's final scene - a story about James Bond's grown-up daughter joining the same world as a deceased father.

The most interesting aspect of this idea, however, is not Mathilde's connections to 007 and SPECTRE, but the futuristic time frame. Mathilde Swann is 5-years-old in No Time To Die, which is broadly set in the early-mid 2020s. For a spinoff starring Bond's daughter to work, she would need to be around 25-30, which pushes the timeline up toward 2045. Given how Daniel Craig's James Bond movies already surf the cutting edge of technology, a story set in the mid-2040s would invite all manner of futuristic gadgets, advanced digital threats, and a wildly changed social landscape.

Mathilde's spy adventure would be unrecognizable, and more speculative in its depiction of the world, compared to her father's. Despite using its timeline to differentiate from other James Bond movies, a Mathilde Swann spinoff also offers a clever way to continue the popular Daniel Craig continuity. Whatever comes next, Bond 26 will almost certainly reboot the series wholesale, starting afresh with a new cast, a new tone, and a new 007. Following Mathilde in a spinoff would mean keeping one foot in Bond's existing realm, allowing Amazon to explore the best of both worlds.

The main James Bond franchise can steam ahead with a new face, and potentially even wind back the clock by setting Bond 26 in the 1960s like Ian Fleming's original books. Simultaneously, Mathilde Swann's spinoff could push James Bond toward the future and continue Daniel Craig's legacy more directly. Two very different spies under one umbrella, both steeped in movie history.