The James Bond franchise isn't really one known for continuity, with most of the films in the series largely operating as individual stories, but that's something that has changed greatly in the Daniel Craig era. Quantum of Solace picked up immediately after the events portrayed in Casino Royale, and now director Sam Mendes has admitted that a great deal of the next 007 adventure, now simply known as Bond 24, will tie back to what we saw happen to the super spy in Skyfall.
Picked up on by Digital Spy, the British filmmaker recently appeared on The Charlie Rose Show, and during the course of his interview with the host he revealed a few very interesting details about his next Bond adventure, specifically how it will tie back to the movie he made in 2012. "I started a number of stories that were incomplete," Mendes admitted while explaining why he decided to come back to the franchise. "I cast a new M, I cast a new Moneypenny, I cast a new Q, I cast a new Tanner. There was a missing piece now. I felt like there was a way to create the second part of a two-part story."
Mendes, of course, is referring to the fact that he not only cast Ben Whishaw as Q and Rory Kinnear as Tanner in Skyfall, but also that the the final moments of the movie introduced Ralph Fiennes' Gareth Mallory as the new M (replacing Judi Dench) and Naomie Harris's character as the new Moneypenny. Certainly another director could have signed on to direct the next chapter in the franchise and use those same characters, but it's interesting that Mendes felt compelled to say more with the new cast.
So what can we expect to see in Bond 24 that connects to Skyfall thematically? Judging by Sam Mendes' additional comments, he is further interested in looking at James Bond as an aging character - something that the director felt fans really responded to well in the last movie. Said Mendes,
"What we tried to do, and audiences seemed to embrace in Skyfall, was that for the first time characters were allowed to age, and they were allowed to acknowledge the passing of the years, and were allowed to acknowledge the history - in a kind of sly, mischievous way - the history of the franchise that they've been part of."
Bond 24 will be going into production this fall, about two years after the release of Skyfall, and while that may not seem like a lot of time, that's quite a bit in Hollywood terms. In fact, it was time that Sam Mendes was very thankful to have and also played an important role in getting him to come back and helm the sequel. "I started to get really interested again when they agreed to wait a little longer and not go immediately, and not go with two movies but with one, which I felt very strongly about," the director explained.
As Bond 24 gets closer to production we will surely start to hear a lot more about it, so stay tuned over the coming months!
