Filming of Secret Invasion continues in England, and here is Kingsley Ben-Adir, playing an unidentified villain, on set with Emilia Clarke yesterday. So, this is probably the bad guy contingent. I would like to point out, once again, that Emilia Clarke is still wearing cool boots—I support women in cool boots, this is my election platform. Vote for me and there will be free pop in the cafeteria, and everyone gets cool boots. KBA is also sporting cool boots, so while they might be villains, they’re stylish villains. Which is the only kind of villain to be, really.
It’s crazy that it’s only been two years since Ben-Adir broke out in One Night in Miami…. (Not even two years, technically, as Miami premiered at the fall festivals in 2020.) It feels like forever ago, but it’s only a little more than a year, and a weird year at that, so forgive me if I’ve missed this, but how is KBA not on the “next James Bond” list? Now, you know my #1 is Dev Patel, but KBA would be a solid choice, too. And I do sort of think the next Bond will be someone the internet hasn’t talked to death—the same way Daniel Craig appeared as a left-field pick—and KBA is more under the radar than, say Rege-Jean Page, Henry Cavill, and Henry Golding. He’s got a calmness, too, that would be an interesting counterbalance to the kinetic Craig years. Secret Invasion might change that—the internet does have a way of latching onto Marvel villains—but in the moment, Kingsley Ben-Adir is a strong pick for the next Bond.
