10 Ways That Bond 25 Can Improve On SPECTRE

Whilst Lea Seydoux is a great actress, her character Dr. Madeleine Swann is seen as major problem with SPECTRE. Compare her to Eva Green's Vesper Lynd, Judi Dench's M or even Olga Kurylenko's Camille, and it is apparent she had little to do besides follow Bond around and be the damsel in distress - something of a step back for a string of Bond films featuring strong women who stood out as individuals who happened to get caught up in Bond's missions.

It was unsatisfying that Swann became the woman that Bond gave up everything for, and with whom he finally got the happy ending he'd been robbed of in Casino Royale. It seemed undeserved, and Swann did not really have a distinctive character arc of redemption, undying love or betrayal.

Unlike Waltz' Blofeld, in Bond 25 it would be good to either have 007 move on without mentioning her, as he is prone to do, or perhaps even more effectively copy The Bourne Supremacy and have her death at the hands of SPECTRE really count for something.

Perhaps having a Bond woman in a similar role to M or Camille, where no romance is involved but there is a deep connection between our man and whoever he needs to team up with, would be best so as not to cheapen the impact of Swann's death, should the team go down this route. Of course he'll sleep with other people - this is James Bond after all - but a strong female co-lead would be a key piece of course correction to enable Bond to move forward in our modern society, whilst retaining the misogyny that is key to his throwback character.

Someone like Romola Garai or Ruth Wilson would be suitable for this type of role, but as the industry moves on and we're getting characters like Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa, it's far more exciting to see Bond try and adapt to an increasingly equal society that won't stand for his attitude to women, even though part of us wants him to stay that way - especially if he's standing alongside someone who won't fall for his charms.