With the recent release of No Time to Die, this recent run of James Bond movies starring Daniel Craig has come to an end. For the last 15 years, audiences have traveled the world with Craig's 007 as he thwarted the plans of evil-doers, each brought to life by several terrific actors. There's Mads Mikkelsen's Le Chiffre, who kicked things off in Casino Royale, followed by the likes of Mathieu Amalric's Dominic Greene in Quantum of Solace, Javier Bardem's Silva in Skyfall, Christoph Waltz's Blofeld in Spectre, and Rami Malek's Safin in this latest flick.
Now that this run of movies is done, fans and pundits are on the lookout for who could be the next 007 to kick off the next iteration. But to all those theories and suggestions I can only say, "Yeah yeah, but what about the villain?" The Bond villain is as important to the story as Bond himself, and whoever is the next to don the tux, they're going to need a compelling co-star to make saving the world all the more exciting. Below I have compiled a list of actors that could make for truly excellent Bond baddies, each bringing to the table varieties of charm, intensity, sensuality, intellect, and no small amount of deviousness.
Gary Oldman
I don’t know where the Bond franchise is going after this, but there’s no one more reliable to steer the villain ship than Gary Oldman. Need a classic English villain who can rock a turtleneck? Gary Oldman. Need a scary, semi-campy Russian baddie who can rock some Soviet-era garb? Gary Oldman. Need an eccentric billionaire who thinks Thanos had the right idea...and can rock a turtleneck? Gary Oldman. In fact, with such an eclectic body of work at his back, it’s a crime that he hasn’t been involved as a Big Bad in the series yet. But the past is in the past. Whatever they have in mind for where Bond goes next, it would be long overdue to have Oldman in there causing chaos.
Tilda Swinton
If you need someone who can simultaneously be the weirdest, most mysterious, and the smartest Bond villain yet, Tilda Swinton is your star. A performer who has never failed to dominate the screen, she would be the kind of villain where there’s no wondering who’s in charge when she’s around. Her villain would answer to no one, would be pulling the strings, and would be always ten steps ahead of Bond and make the spy look like a damn fool. Like Oldman, there's a no-brainer quality to Swinton as the Big Bad, and hopefully those behind the next iteration keep her in mind for any and all evil-doing.
Olivia Colman
Okay, I can sense your internal question marks from here with this one. But the fact of the matter is Colman has been proving herself a commanding performer across all sorts of genres for years, and I believe she has more than what it takes to be a fascinating villain. Like Imelda Staunton’s Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter movies, she could play a villain who hides her deep sociopathy underneath an unsettlingly frill and pompous exterior. That, or she finds the colorful madness behind a world-conquering evil genius who catches Bond in an elaborate trap. No matter the scenario, Colman would find a way to make it captivating and fun to watch.
Idris Elba
Yes, yes, we’ve all heard the fan pleas. Elba has been a top choice to play Bond for years, despite the fact the actor himself still doesn't seem to be gunning for the role. But we’ve spent so much time thinking about how good he would look behind the wheel of an Astin Martin that we forget he would be just as effective behind the button of a devastating nuclear launch. Between movies like Jungle Book and Hobbs & Shaw, Elba has proven himself capable of tackling a range of villainous characters, and it’s about time Bond faced a foe who is almost certainly more dashing than himself.
Penelope Cruz
One thing the new Bond run could very much use is a compelling femme fatale, and Cruz could bring to such a role an absorbing blend of mystery, sensuality, and cunning. One of Bond’s weak points can be the women who come across his path, and to see an actress like Cruz toy with that as she works behind the scenes on a villainous master plan would be highly entertaining. Like another star on this list, she will soon get to flex some more action chops in the upcoming The 355, and if she wants to continue in that genre, she would be an excellent candidate for a villain who is Bond’s match on several levels.
Michelle Yeoh
There is no project Yeoh doesn’t make better simply by being there, including her work as Colonel Wai Lin in the just-fine Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies. While she got a crack as a Bond ally, there's no denying she would make a fantastic villain. She could at once use her grace and humility to appear disarming and in no way capable of world domination, while at the next moment proving why she doesn’t need to have any guards around by beating the living shit out of anyone who gets in her way — even Bond. She has the acting chops to stand alongside any hot new Bond, the range to be a truly evil baddie, and the athletic skill to jump into the action unlike any Bond threat we’ve yet to see.
Michael Shannon
With the exception of Bardem’s Silva and perhaps Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre, I found most of the Bond villains this last run to be a little…predictable. Should the new run of movies want to shake things up, picking Shannon as a villain would be a perfect fit. Able to be equal parts terrifyingly intense and darkly comic, he could easily straddle the line between the more grounded villains viewers have become accustomed to in recent years and the colorful villains of the series’ past. To let him loose in a character like a Bond villain would bring some much-needed unpredictability to a worthy foe, able to send chills up your spine with a speech or shock with a burst of rage. Or, if he wants to get weird, he can get weird. The man can do it all.
Lupita Nyong’o
We’ve seen Nyong’o play the hero in movies like Black Panther and Little Monsters, and will do the same in the upcoming The 355 — and she’s great at it. But as we saw in her work in Jordan Peele’s Us, Nyong’o is capable of channeling deeply unnerving darkness you can’t take your eyes off of, and as Bond baddie, we could see her properly go off. And that’s if she were given the Big Bad role with some layers to chew on. But the brilliance of Nyong’o is that even as a more physical threat, raining bullets down on Bond in a heavily armed chopper, she would get the work done to make it absurdly fun and leave her mark on the franchise.
Pedro Pascal
Pascal has been on the rise since he captivated and swooned audiences with his take on Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones, landing roles in hit movies and top TV series. Part of me is certain that if you take a sex-loving, debonair, insanely deadly character like Pascal’s version of Martell and made him the top baddie of a Bond movie, he could be a villain for the ages. I can already picture Pascal, giving a captured Bond some big Bad Guy Speech, all before opening up a pit of man-eating sharks and becoming so gleeful over what his fish babies will do to the English spy. Like Elba, he would match Bond in the handsomeness department, too, kind of making it difficult to pick one to root for.
Mark Hamill
Should the next Bond movies go the more colorful route, there should definitely be a spot for the one and only Mark Hamill somewhere in there. We all know Hamill as Luke Skywalker, the hero who saved the galaxy from dudes with buckets on their heads. But, for my money, I’d rather hear him laughing maniacally as he torments the likes of Batman and Bond than have him save the galaxy any day of the week. We’ve all heard the iconic voice work of Hamill behind the likes of the Joker in the Batman universe, and as a Man of Many Faces who always seems to understand the assignment, it would be a blast to watch him unleash a delightfully devious new villain for a Bond flick that embraces a not-too-serious approach.