No Time To Die Opening Scene Is Same Place As Wonder Woman’s Themyscira

The opening scene of the upcoming James Bond movie No Time to Die was filmed in the same place as Wonder Woman. The 25th Bond movie will be Daniel Craig’s fifth and final appearance as the iconic gentleman spy as he moves on to other ventures like Rian Johnson’s Knives Out 2. After several pushbacks due to the departure of initial director Danny Boyle and COVID-19 theater closures, No Time to Die is set to finally release in the United States on October 8th, 2021.

No Time To Die begins with Bond once again off of active duty following the events of Spectre. He is pulled back into the action when his friend Felix Leiter, played by Jeffery Wright in his return to the role, requests Bond’s help in locating a missing scientist. The movie sees the return of familiar faces like Spectre’s Dr. Madeleine Swann, played by Léa Seydoux, as well as introduces new ones like Rami Malek’s villainous Lyutsifer Safin. Spectre had been rumored to be Craig’s last Bond outing and the actor has since confirmed No Time to Die will conclude his time as the MI6 agent.

Director and co-writer Cary Fukunaga revealed in EW that No Time To Die‘s opening pre-title sequence was filmed in the town of Matera, Italy, the same location as Wonder Woman‘s Themyscira scenes. The sequence involves Bond paying respects to (minor spoiler alert) Eva Green’s Vesper Lynd, who died after betraying Bond in 2006’s Casino Royale. Fukunaga wanted to pay tribute to Casino Royale with the location because Bond and Vesper’s relationship had been so centered in Italy. No Time to Die‘s production designer Mark Tildesley had initially pitched the location to Fukunaga to start the film. Fukunaga recounts his decision below.

“The monochrome nature of Matera already makes it feel like a large necropolis. There’s a lot of metaphors there in terms of what Bond was leaving behind for the next chapter. So that’s kind of how we got there. We also combined two different cities in the sequence. The bridge that we say connects Matera to the necropolis is actually in a neighboring town around 30, 40 minutes away called Gravina in Puglia. We made it seem like it’s all part of the same journey, but it’s actually not part of the same town.”

The opening scene is set in a cemetery that overlooks Matera. This cemetery was constructed specifically for this movie. The streets were designed around the camera positioning in order to give Fukunaga the best view of both Bond and Matera. The scene is meant to tie up loose ends from Craig’s Bond storyline over the past several movies and his relationship with Vesper is a major unresolved one. Fukunaga stated that Bond needs to resolve his grudge with Vesper in order “to move forward with Madeleine Swann” and “let go of his past“.

Bond’s relationship with his infamous “Bond Girls” has slowly morphed with Craig’s iteration. The way in which Vesper continued to have an effect on his character through the course of the story is atypical and his final farewell is sure to be an emotional one, especially in such a beautiful location. With Vesper, Madeleine, and a female 007 played by Lashana Lynch, hopefully future Bond films will continue to improve on the Bond girl’s outdated tropes.

Source: EW