Bond 25: 8 Potential Directors (And Where They Should Take The Series Next)

Ever since Inception, audiences have been crying out to see Christopher Nolan helm a Bond film, and for good reason. Nolan is clearly adept at making intelligent blockbusters that are simultaneously accessible yet refuse to dumb down for wider appeal. Inception also proved Nolan has a fantastic eye for action set pieces: who can forget the rotating hallway fight scene?

Hell, even Nolan himself has expressed interest in directing a Bond film. He's a self-proclaimed fan of the series, and so clearly knows what makes Bond, well...Bond. As for where the story might go next, it'd be great to see Nolan tackle a straight action-thriller film. His past couple films have been conceptually complex, so perhaps he could apply what he learns shooting the war film Dunkirk to Bond.

If Craig sticks around, no more Spectre or Blofeld. Give Bond a huge mystery to tackle. Nolan is fantastic at slowly feeding information and executing massive twists, so a straight “mystery” plot – perhaps some sort of conspiracy – would likely work very well. In fact, mystery and paranoia is densely weaved through the vast majority of Nolan's films: Memento, The Prestige, Inception...heck, even the lesser known Insomnia.

If there's one thing Nolan is brilliant at doing it's pulling audiences into an enigmatic plot. Nolan could really shirk the cliche Bond story arc with villain, nefarious plot and henchmen, giving Bond something a bit deeper and more obscure to wrestle with. Imagine a Prestige-like narrative in which Bond's main adversary is a rival Double O agent, akin to Sean Bean in Goldeneye but taken much, much further.