Last year, Daniel Craig wrapped up his five-film tenure as Spectre.
But the acting was consistently praised. From his introduction in Casino Royale to his send-off in No Time to Die, Craig was backed up by such iconic co-stars as Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, and Ana de Armas.
Christoph Waltz As Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Blofeld’s role in the Craig era was let down by a predictable identity twist. The mysterious villain of Spectre is presented as a man named Franz Oberha before he’s revealed to be Blofeld, a la the Khan reveal in Star Trek Into Darkness.
Fortunately, Christoph Waltz is a strong enough actor to make up for this cliché with a typically compelling performance. His Blofeld isn’t quite as mind-blowing as his Oscar-winning turn as Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds, but he’s just as delightfully sinister.
Naomie Harris As Eve Moneypenny
Moneypenny, one of the most problematic roles in the Bond franchise, was revamped as a field agent in the Craig era. Starting with her introduction in Skyfall, Naomie Harris played Moneypenny as a gun-toting badass.
Within a few minutes of her debut, Moneypenny accidentally shoots Bond. Throughout the movie, she’s visibly shaken by making such a grave mistake. Harris also nails the dry line deliveries, particularly in No Time to Die.
Eva Green As Vesper Lynd
Craig’s first “Bond girl,” Vesper Lynd, reinvented the archetype. In Casino Royale, Bond falls in love with Vesper and quits MI6 just so he can spend more time with her. Vesper isn’t one-dimensional or oversexualized; she’s a vulnerable human being.
Eva Green brings depth and nuance to all the character’s emotional turns, like the trauma of watching 007 beat two henchmen to death in a stairwell and the complicated ethics of betraying Bond to save his life.
Ana De Armas As Paloma
Craig’s Knives Out co-star Ana de Armas was expected to have a bigger role in No Time to Die. Her CIA character, Paloma, only appears in one of the film’s sequences – Blofeld’s birthday party in Cuba – but de Armas still left a huge impression with her limited screen time.
Paloma claims to have only been trained for three weeks, and it shows in her hysterical recklessness. De Armas doesn’t play Paloma as a hypercompetent secret agent like Bond. She’s quite the opposite. She flies by the seat of her pants. This is easily the funniest performance from the Craig era.
Javier Bardem As Raoul Silva
With his now-iconic turn as the villainous Raoul Silva in Skyfall, Javier Bardem became the first in a string of Academy Award winners to play Bond villains, followed by Christoph Waltz in Spectre and Rami Malek in No Time to Die.
Bardem’s performance is mesmerizing enough to overlook the fact that Silva’s plan doesn’t make a lot of sense. His portrayal of Silva is both wonderfully camp and genuinely unsettling.
Lashana Lynch As Nomi
After Bond retired from MI6 in No Time to Die, his 007 codename was taken by a similarly awesome spy named Nomi. Lashana Lynch’s performance doesn’t just shallowly imitate Bond; she makes Nomi her own character.
In the final battle, Lynch develops a fun “buddy cop” back-and-forth with Craig. Plus, her effortless delivery helps to sell one-liners like “Time to die.”
Mads Mikkelsen As Le Chiffre
Mads Mikkelsen gave one of the most chilling Bond villain performances of all time as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. It’s hardly surprising that the actor who succeeded Anthony Hopkins in the role of Hannibal Lecter successfully creeped out Bond fans.
Mikkelsen’s Le Chiffre performance harks back to Joseph Wiseman’s haunting on-screen presence as the first Bond villain, Dr. No. He’s eccentric without being hammy.
Jeffrey Wright As Felix Leiter
Bond’s CIA , Felix Leiter, has been played by a bunch of different actors over the years. But the version played by Jeffrey Wright, first introduced in Casino Royale, might be the most memorable of them all.
After sitting out Skyfall and Spectre, Wright reprised the role in No Time to Die. Ahead of Bond’s own unprecedented ing, Wright performs a moving death scene for Leiter. He dies in Bond’s arms as they’re trapped aboard a sinking ship.
Judi Dench As M
When Daniel Craig took over the role of everyone’s favorite gentleman spy, Judi Dench reprised her role as his superior, M, from the Pierce Brosnan era. Dench developed a whole new on-screen dynamic with Craig’s Bond. Much like in the Brosnan films, M isn’t just an expository role in the Craig films. Opposite Craig’s younger, less experienced Bond, Dench’s M shares a dysfunctional mother-son relationship with 007.
This relationship was explored in the most depth in Skyfall, which marked Dench’s final appearance as M. The movie’s villain has a personal vendetta against M, and Bond will do everything in his power to protect her (and ultimately fails). Dench gave her most iconic character a heartbreaking send-off in this movie.
Daniel Craig As James Bond
Craig’s acclaimed performance as Bond might be the most rounded, human, realistic take on the character yet. He left behind the goofy one-liners and slapstick humor of Roger Moore and Pierce Brosnan and harked back to Sean Connery’s grounded turn in the original classics. He also mixed in the grizzled edge of Timothy Dalton and the emotional weight of George Lazenby.
And, on top of that, Craig brought plenty of his own strengths and talents to the role, creating a Bond who is both wryly detached and prone to getting his feelings hurt. No Time to Die gave Craig’s version of Bond a bittersweet send-off, the actor gave arguably the strongest dramatic performance in the role to date.
