10 Movie Moments We Waited Years For (That Lived Up To Expectations)

5. Bond Returns - Casino Royale

For all of the entertainment factor of Pierce Brosnan's run as 007 - including the irrefutably excellent Goldeneye, of course - by the time his tenure ended in 2002 with Die Another Day, it's fair to say the series had lost its way. It was flabby, silly and felt close to a self-parody thanks in part to the unfortunate reality that even the most criticised parts (by things like Austin Powers) were still being pushed as relevant in 2002. Change was needed but for a while, all the franchise did was sit inactive.

Even with rumblings of coming changes, Brosnan wasn't officially dropped as Bond until February 2005. Even then, the disappointment of The World Is Not Enough had convinced a significant number of fans that it was time for Brosnan and Bond to move on. That 2002's release of Die Another Day also coincided with the release of the first Bourne movie spelled out how necessary wholesale evolution was needed.

Four years without a Bond film is a long time for fans to have to wait (it's only happened a couple of times), but the evolution of Bond that we knew was coming also heaped hype onto the eventually announced Casino Royale. And thanks to its blend of grit, Bourne-influenced action and a different, darker Bond, it delivered in a way that took even the most ardent of Bond fans by surprise: this was Bond as it should have been since the 1980s when Timothy Dalton's version was widely rejected.