We already knew that Ben Whishaw had been cast in the currently shooting new James Bond film “Skyfall”, but before now his role had been unspecified.
Now however it has been revealed via The BBC – Wishaw is set to play Q, the MI6 Quartermaster memorably played by Desmond Llewelyn from 1963’s “From Russia with Live” through to 1999’s “The World is Not Enough”. In that same film John Cleese essentially took over the character’s role and performed the same job in 2002’s “Die Another Day”.
The character, who basically creates and dispenses Bond’s various gadgets and vehicles, has been missing from the Daniel Craig-led version of the series. The casting of 31-year-old Whishaw marks the first time in the series Q will be younger than 007 (Craig is 43).
While the role was mostly used as a bit of comic relief later in the series, this is likely to follow the tone of the character in the Sean Connery-era films – dispensing fairly practical implements and tools (rather than decidedly sci-fi gadgets) for Bond’s mission mixed with a very slight touch of dry humour.
Whishaw has received a lot of acclaim for his work in films like “Bright Star”, “Brideshead Revisited”, “I’m Not There”, “Perfume”, “The Tempest” and TV series like “Criminal Justice” and “The Hour”. He and Craig previously worked together in 2004’s “Layer Cake”.
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