The 7 Best James Bond Villains Who Might Return For Amazon’s Upcoming Film
With a cinematic history dating back to the early 1960s, the James Bond franchise has safely remained one of the longest-running series in the entirety of pop culture.
Spanning six decades, six main actors, and just over two dozen films, the James Bond series has stood as the fortified cornerstone of the larger espionage genre, influencing such iconic successors as Indiana Jones, Mission: Impossible, and Kingsman in the immediate years that followed.
Along with the series’ signature booming soundtracks, eclectic action, and endlessly unique technological gadgetry, one notable reason accounting for James Bond’s success lies in the strength of its main villains. With speculation running wild about what the franchise might look like under Amazon’s creative direction, we decided to take a look back at several extraordinary 007 villains we’d love to see in a future James Bond film, from world-class international assassins to disillusioned MI6 agents with a major chip on their shoulders.
Emilio Largo
Perhaps best known for providing the inspiration to Austin Powers’ aptly-named Number 2, Emilio Largo acts as the right-hand man to SPECTRE’s overarching leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. But don’t let his secondary position within the organization fool you; like Darth Vader’s relationship to Emperor Palpatine, Largo is every bit as ruthless as his SPECTRE superior. With that in mind, Bond fans continue to hold out hope of seeing Largo return in a future James Bond movie, potentially fulfilling a similar role as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale or Dr. No in Dr. No as a preliminary representative of SPECTRE in the new films.
Xenia Onatopp
More often than not, James Bond villains tend to fall into one of two categories: outlandishly cartoonish or unexpectedly realistic. Every once in a while, though, a villain like GoldenEye’s Xenia Onatopp arrives, blurring the line between these two distinct classifications. Though in possession of an improbable name and a heavily stylized outward persona (a sadistic Russian assassin who squeezes her targets to death with her thighs), Xenia never comes across as too over-the-top or kitschy like the bowler hat-clad Oddjob or the steel-mouthed Jaws. For this reason alone, we’d welcome any chance at seeing this sultry femme fatale return to the big screen.
Elektra King
Since Dr. No’s release in 1962, the so-called “Bond girl” became a permanent fixture of the James Bond canon, with almost every subsequent 007 flick including a female lead to hold Bond’s romantic attention. With that in mind, audiences could rightfully believe The World Is Not Enough’s Elektra King to be yet another addition to the lengthy list of past Bond girls, joining the likes of Diana Rigg’s Tracy in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service or Michelle Yeoh’s Wai Lin in Tomorrow Never Lies. But when King reveals her true identity as a vengeful sociopath seeking to obtain her father’s vast fortune, she becomes something of a rarity in Bond’s canon: an alluring, seemingly sympathetic romantic interest who doubles as the film’s main antagonist. It’s an ingenious plot twist that helped break the formulaic nature of most Bond female leads, making King that much more fascinating a villain to observe – and one we avidly hope to see again in another Bond movie.
Red Grant
While most people have grown used to seeing Bond battle enemy agents who share an uncanny resemblance to MI6’s top field agent, From Russia with Love marked the first instance Bond crossed paths with a stylistic counterpart. Standing in sharp contrast to over-the-top antagonists like Dr. No or high-concept henchmen like Jaws, Red Grant proves you don’t need to have a colorful name or exaggerated appearance to come across as a formidable threat. Appearing almost as the evil version of James Bond, Grant makes for a wholly believable and refreshingly grounded rival for 007, making him an ideal choice for any subsequent Bond leaves looking for a realistic antagonist in the central role.
Francisco Scaramanga
Brilliantly brought to life by horror legend Christopher Lee, Francisco Scaramanga’s appearance in The Man with the Golden Gun is the single redeeming strength of this otherwise forgettable Bond adventure. A master assassin known for relying on a golden pistol to dispatch his intended target, Scaramanga makes for that rare 007 villain that can be portrayed as either incredibly kitschy or surprisingly realistic. Matching Bond in wit, charm, and general handiness with firearms, seeing Scaramanga resurrected in a future James Bond film would certainly be a welcome sight, allowing audiences to look past the critical failures of The Man with the Golden Gun and enjoy this world-class hitman for the charismatic sociopath he truly is.
Alec Trevelyan
James Bond is no stranger to encountering Bizarro versions of himself, be it in the form of evil 007 archetypes like Red Grant or embittered ex-MI6 agents like GoldenEye’s Alec Trevelyan. In the case of the latter, Trevelyan appears as one of the very few antagonists to share an extensive past history with Bond, serving as the agent’s best friend during their time together in Britain’s secret service. Carrying out a complex plot for revenge against the United Kingdom, Trevelyan’s personal relationship to Bond establishes him as one of the most memorable villains in the franchise’s history, as well as a 007 foe we’d love to see depicted in the series again at some point down the road.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
The Moriarty to Bond’s Holmes, Ernst Stavro Blofeld is as permanently tied to the James Bond franchise as the Joker is to Batman, Lex Luthor is to Superman, and the Green Goblin is to Spider-Man. The merciless head of SPECTRE, Blofeld has appeared in nine different 007 films since the series began in 1962. Played by a variety of legendary actors like Donald Pleasence, Telly Savalas, Max von Sydow, and Christoph Waltz, Blofeld has taken on a range of personality traits with each new iteration, appearing as a cold and calculating criminal mastermind in one film before transitioning into a campy, self-confident thief in another. Throughout it all, Blofeld has provided the 007 series with one of its most iconic antagonists, leaving little reason to wonder why this notorious Napoleon of espionage has found his way back into the Bond franchise time and time again.
