Moneypenny and Q are missing from Daniel Craig's first two James Bond outings, No Time To Die set for a November 2020 release, Craig will bow out after his fifth Bond movie, having (mostly) successfully overhauled the franchise.
It's been an interesting ride for Craig, whose debut in Casino Royale was hailed as one of the finest depictions of Bond yet. The movie was notable not just for its darker, more grounded tone, but because it scrapped much of the elements that had previously defined a Bond film – among them, the characters of Miss Moneypenny, secretary to M, and the service's head of research and development, Q.
Dropping Q and Moneypenny was a bold move that initially seemed to work for the newly-reinvigorated franchise. Craig's debut coincided with an effort on the part of producers to renew public interest in the series by introducing a younger Bond at the beginning of his 00 agent career. Ian Fleming's 1953 novel Casino Royale, the first Bond story, was an obvious choice for the source material. The book featured only a fleeting mention of Miss Moneypenny, while Q was completely absent. As such, neither character appeared in the film (despite there being some big differences between Casino Royale and the book) nor its follow-up, Quantum of Solace. This marked a significant period for the Bond saga, which had previously featured Moneypenny in 20 of its prior films and Q in 19.
Making such a drastic change made a lot of sense at the time. Following the disappointing Die Another Day, which is widely considered accurate to the original Bond book in order to shake up a series that had become increasingly stale.
When it came time for the next installment, Quantum Of Solace was planned as a direct sequel to Royale, shackling the filmmakers to the Q and Moneypenny-less world established in the previous film. This time, however, there was no Fleming source material to back up the lack of the two characters. But after the success of the first Craig movie, there was seemingly no need to mess with a winning formula. Unfortunately, the problem-plagued Quantum of Solace was poorly received by audiences, leaving Bond once again in-need of reinvention.
When 2012's Spectre.
