James Bond fans spent this weekend celebrating James Bond Day (the anniversary of the release of Dr. No in 1962) analyzing the first poster for Daniel Craig’s final turn as the iconic spy. Many of them were, shall we say, less than thrilled.
The poster shows a tuxedo-clad Craig standing in front of a weathered turquoise wall, looking off into the distance. The title of the film is printed in large, white letters in a distinctive typeface.
It is, all in all, a fine poster. It doesn’t reveal any significant information about the film or particularly blow us away with its aesthetics, but it is in line with the first posters of other modern Bond films, which one fan account pointed out usually feature just the lead actor and the title of the film.
It’s probably worth remembering that Bond teaser posters have basically had the exact same design for the last 20+ years. It’s almost always just Bond and the title to get general audiences to associate the name with James Bond and the 007 brand.
It’s akin to an announcement. pic.twitter.com/I0elJuHmhm
— The Words Are Not Enough (@TWANEpod) October 5, 2019
And yet, there’s something about this poster that’s very unpleasant to the kind of folks who voice their opinions about James Bond movie posters on the internet.
I swear, James Bond movies used to have good posters. pic.twitter.com/Vm7Z0QbuC3
— Martin Kessler (@MovieKessler) October 5, 2019
This poster just screams “James Bond just discreetly walked out of a brothel at 6am”. pic.twitter.com/WGgp2x6zYb
— Dan (@Danimalish) October 5, 2019
Someone looks like he'd rather slash his wrists than pose for another James Bond poster… https://t.co/yGwJCTNpID
— Scott Mendelson (@ScottMendelson) October 5, 2019
"James Bond : A history of how the fuck movie poster went so wrong" pic.twitter.com/ulBSaA8VJC
— Stagiaire des Affiches 💙 (@StagiaireAffich) October 5, 2019
A bad movie can have a great poster and a great movie can have a bad poster, so it doesn’t make much sense to get riled up over a poster because you think it means the movie will be like it, particularly in this case when the poster doesn’t offer much in terms of clues to what the film will actually be like.
One fan account summed up the premature panic around the poster succinctly with the right message to stressed-out fans: stay loose.
There has been a very mixed reaction to the new teaser poster for No Time To Die. All I'm saying is… don't judge a book by its cover. In a wider sense many Bond fans are being very negative towards the film and seem to have already made up their mind. Stay loose…#JamesBond pic.twitter.com/QU9aEfw7cy
— THUNDERBALLS™ (@Thunderballs007) October 6, 2019
No Time to Die will be released on April 8, the day that the strong opinions about this poster will presumably be crowded out by strong opinions of the actual movie, which will then give way to even stronger opinions about who the next Bond should be.
