New 'No Time to Die' Clip: Could These Women Replace James Bond?

Counting Jeffrey Wright’s return as CIA agent Felix Leiter, James Bond will have a total of three secret agents backing him up in the upcoming No Time To Die. A new featurette for No Time To Die finally reveals the identities of the two women poised to give Bond a run for his money.

We’ve known for a while that Lashana Lynch is playing some kind of new MI-6 agent. But now we know her name is Nomi, and she is a double-O agent. Whether or not her number is “007” remains to be seen. But, if that does happen, it means that in retirement, Bond’s number was possibly given to another agent. (The idea that the 007 number doesn’t originate with Bond himself is backed-up by the prequel novel Forever and Day, authorized by the Fleming estate, in which we learn that Bond replaced another agent, also with the number “007”)

Anyway, if No Time to Die is secretly setting up a backdoor spin-off series focused Nomi, this behind-the-scenes clip certainly adds fuel to that rumor-fire. Lynch mentions she went through “military” training to do her stunts in the film and mentions that “No Time To Die represents change.” Could this new double-O get her own movies? Who knows! We gotta get through this one first!

Additionally, No Time to Die will find Daniel Craig re-teamed with his Knives Out co-star, Ana de Armas. In the Bond universe, de Armas plays Paloma, a Cuban agent who intercepts Bond in Santiago. Another ally of Bond in the film, de Armas says Paloma is “intense,” and said that in regard to the stunts, she really wanted to “get it right.” Whether or not Paloma will exist in a future Bond film, or a spin-off (again hypothetical!) isn’t clear. But, when you watch both de Armas and Lynch in these behind-the-scenes training sequences, it’s pretty clear that only having these characters appear in one film would be a shame. Not since Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies has Bond’s back-up looked so utterly kick-ass.

No Time To Die will hit theaters very soon, on October 8, 2021. To get ready, the people behind the film have an official podcast. The latest episode is called “Bond Around the World.”