Bond 25: 10 Things That We Need In The Next 007 Film

When we picture the gallery of rogues that have squared off against 007 over the past half-century of films, it’s hard not to envision the henchmen just as much as the main villains. Goldfinger had Oddjob, Scaramanga had Nick Nick, and the looming figure of Jaws often threatened to cast a shadow over the megalomaniacs he served.

Until Spectre, the Craig films had lacked a traditional secondary villain of any worth. The colossal Hinx, then, was a gigantic step in the right direction. His battles with Bond in Spectre were among the most memorable sequences in the film.

Bond henchmen don’t necessarily need to check boxes of visual quirkiness to work; indeed, the greatest henchman of all, Red Grant, was such a powerful figure as to overshadow even Blofeld and Klebb, his SPECTRE overlords, as threats to 007. What’s needed from henchmen is a sense of presence, which the best have had in spades.

Lickspittles with bowl haircuts named Elvis just won’t cut it. Bond 25 needs a truly unique, threatening henchman or woman that both works as a separate entity from the main villain, and can go toe-to-toe with Bond in a set-piece that lives long in the memory.