Things have been pretty dour for James Bond lately. He faced a tragic origin story, seethed with revenge, faced an internal struggle that led back to his roots and then faced that serial lady killer in Sweden (unless you believe Girl With the Dragon Tattoo wasn’t a James Bond movie (even the title feels right, people)).
With all that glowering and angst from a character that used to smarm his way through hotel rooms and laser shark battles, this is a natural reaction from Daniel Craig regarding Bond 24:
“Hopefully we’ll reclaim some of the old irony and make sure it doesn’t become pastiche. I can’t do shtick, I’m not very good at it. Unless it kind of suddenly makes sense. Does that make sense? I sometimes wish I hammed it up more, but I just can’t do it very well, so I don’t do it.” [The Guardian]
So maybe 007 won’t be saying, “Remember when I said I’d kill you last?…” but a little bit of levity will definitely be welcome. Shooting bad guys with facial scars and sipping weak martinis doesn’t have to be so heavy. We’ll see how much grinning Bond does in November 2015.