When you consider how much Hollywood loves a spin-off, it's downright shocking that not a single one has emerged from the long-running James Bond franchise, but that's not to say they've never attempted it. One such spin-off would have centered on Jinx, the NSA agent played by Halle Berry in DIE ANOTHER DAY, which was Pierce Brosnan's final appearance as James Bond.
James Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson were the ones pushing for a Jinx spin-off, but while speaking with Variety, Halle Berry says that MGM ultimately wasn't willing to pony up the $80 million needed to get the project started.
It was very disappointing. It was ahead of its time. Nobody was ready to sink that kind of money into a Black female action star. They just weren’t sure of its value. That’s where we were then.
When the Jinx spin-off didn't take off, Halle Berry elected to star in CATWOMAN, hoping that it would change the kinds of roles that were offered to Black actors. "People said to me, ‘You can’t do that. You’ve just won the Oscar,'" said Berry. "Because I didn’t do Jinx, I thought, ‘This is a great chance for a woman of color to be a superhero. Why wouldn’t I try this?'" Well, I think we all know how CATWOMAN turned out, but thankfully Halle Berry more than recovered from that unfortunate superhero movie.
Our own Chris Bumbray has been making his way through the Bond movies in the James Bond Revisited series, and he recently covered THUNDERBALL, the fourth film in the franchise. It may be a little while before he gets to DIE ANOTHER DAY, but I'm sure he'll have plenty to say about that entry.