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Meanwhile… The New 007 Is A Black Woman

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The Bond franchise just handed its licence to kill to someone who isn’t James Bond at all.

Reports surfacing in mid-July 2019 revealed that 31-year-old British actress Lashana Lynch will carry the 007 codename in the still-untitled 25th Bond film, then known only as “Bond 25.” The story moved fast enough to land on late-night television within days, with “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” running a segment titled “Meanwhile… The New 007 Is A Black Woman.” The twist buried in the plot details, though, is that Lynch isn’t playing a female James Bond — she’s playing the agent who inherits his number while he’s off the grid.

• Lashana Lynch, known for playing Air Force pilot Maria Rambeau in 2019’s “Captain Marvel,” will hold the 007 designation in Bond 25 — becoming the first Black actor and first woman to carry the number in the franchise’s 57-year run.
• Daniel Craig returns as James Bond, who opens the film retired in Jamaica following the events of “Spectre,” rather than being replaced as the character.
• MI6 chief M, played by Ralph Fiennes, calls in “007” early in the film — a scene that reveals Lynch’s character has taken over the number while Bond is out of active service.

Codename Transfer Process Explained

The confusion driving most of the online chatter stems from a simple mix-up: 007 is a job title within MI6, not James Bond’s name. Craig’s Bond starts the new film retired in Jamaica, picking up directly from the ending of “Spectre.” With Bond out of active duty, MI6 reassigns the vacant 007 designation to a new agent — and that agent is Lynch’s character, introduced when M summons “007” into a briefing and Lynch walks in instead of Bond.

That structure means Craig isn’t being replaced in the marquee role; he’s still top-billed as James Bond and still central to the story. Lynch’s character operates alongside him as MI6’s current 007, a distinction that separates this casting news from the years of rumors about a “female Bond” that had circulated before the reports broke.

Profile of Actor Lashana Lynch

Lynch built her profile in 2019 largely off “Captain Marvel,” where she played Maria Rambeau, Carol Danvers’ best friend and fellow Air Force pilot. The Bond casting news arrived while that performance was still fresh in moviegoers’ minds, which helped fuel coverage of her stepping into a franchise that, since Sean Connery’s debut in 1962, had never put anyone other than a white actor in the 007 chair.

The first Black actor and the first woman to hold the 007 designation in the franchise’s 57-year history.

The scene reported around the announcement — M calling for “007” and Lynch answering — is designed as the film’s reveal moment, playing off decades of audience expectation that the number and the name belong to the same person.

The Late-Night Pile-On

Colbert’s segment leaned into the mislabeling that spread online, poking fun at how quickly “the new Bond is a Black woman” became the shorthand headline even though the plot details said otherwise. It’s the kind of quick-turn topical bit late-night has built entire monologue segments around for years, in the same vein as the political sketch comedy that shows like SNL have used to react to a news cycle within days of it breaking.

The reaction split along predictable lines once the story spread past entertainment outlets — praise from those calling it a modernizing move for a franchise that turns 57 this year, and pushback from traditionalists objecting to the casting on principle. That kind of split-screen response has become a familiar pattern any time a legacy franchise makes a diversity-driven casting choice, echoing the sort of online arguments chronicled in other flashpoint celebrity moments that dominate social media.

Bond 25 was still without an official title when the 007 casting news broke, with Craig locked in for what’s been billed as his final outing as Bond and Fiennes returning as M to deliver the very briefing-room scene that introduces Lynch’s character to audiences.