James Bond Producers Say They’re Figuring Out The Next Bond Villain Before Casting 007

The casting of the next James Bond has yet to start, and the franchise’s producers say they’re figuring out who the villain will be first. Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson spoke with THR for a new interview and discussed Amazon’s purchase of MGM, what’s next for the 007 franchise and more. You can check out highlights of Broccoli’s comments below:

On the concerns they had with their first time on charge of a Bond film: “I grew up around Bond, so I was imbued with everything Bond since I was a little girl. I always say that I wanted to spend as much time as I could with my father, because he was just such an amazing man. So, I was around a lot and it turned into me working with him and with Michael, learning at the feet of the master. When Cubby (Albert Romolo Broccoli) asked us to take over for GoldenEye he had a lot of confidence in us, which made a big difference. He had instilled in us the kind of passion that he felt for filmmaking and for the series, in particular. I suppose the anxiety was to live up to everything that had come before.”

On if they know how MGM (and Bond films) will fit into Amazon: “Not really. It’s very early days. We’ve made a film called Till, which is about Emmett Till, which is being released by UAR, so Amazon have been incredibly supportive of Till because it’s under their auspices now. So we’ve been having a very good experience, a very positive experience [with Till]. They’re really behind the film. So, we’ve gotten off to a great start.”

On the speculation on who the next Bond will be and if it affects them: “When we get to a point, like we are now, we have to think about the trajectory of the Bond films and the storylines and where we want to take them. So, that’s really the main focus at the beginning. Once we have a sense of where we want to go, then we’ll start thinking about casting. We’re not just casting someone for one film. We’re casting someone hopefully for a decade, at least. It’s a big decision to make, and we’re nowhere near making that decision.”

On if there are any “societal changes” that they’re looking at to be reflected in the next Bond: “It’s hard to know. We always sit down with our writers, and we start by thinking about “What is the world afraid of?” We start by thinking about, ‘Who’s the Bond villain?’ We try to focus on that as the sort of uber story, and then we want to also look at Bond’s emotional life, and what he’ll be facing personally that he hasn’t had to deal with before. So he has two big issues in the films — one is the geopolitical one and the other is the personal one.”