Did No Time To Die just out one of the characters as gay?

This article contains spoilers for No Time To Die.

The latest James Bond film, No Time To Die, has finally hit cinemas after a one-and-a-half year delay because of the pandemic (read a review of the movie here).

Apparently, the movie has a queer surprise in store for fans – the character of Q, played by Ben Whishaw in the last three 007 films, appears to be portrayed as gay in the film.

We're gonna keep spoilers to a minimum, although the reveal isn't important to the main plot of the movie.

There is but one scene that implies that Q, the stylish quartermaster to the super-spy, is gay.

James Bond and Moneypenny come to Q's home to ask for his help, since Bond isn't an official agent of MI6 any more.

As Bond and Moneypenny arrive at Q's flat, he is cooking a meal. He appears to be waiting for a man to join him for dinner, and he's initially flustered by the interruption to his evening plans.

He never actually says it's a date coming to his flat, but Q says, looking at his watch, "He's coming in 20 minutes." He.

At one point, Q also says something along the line of "Can't a guy have a nice night to himself for once?", adding to the suspicion that he had a romantic evening planned.

It's pretty circumstantial and not confirmed to a tee, but a reasonable person watching could conclude that Q was having a date with a guy.

Whishaw came out as gay in 2013. He just said in an interview with British gay magazine Attitude that he would be thrilled if a gay actor were to play the next James Bond.

Asked whether the James Bond character could be female, Black or gay, the 40-year-old actor said in an interview with Variety that the 007 franchise needs "radical" change if it is to be relevant to modern audiences.

"If they want to continue with this character and the franchise, I think you can explode it and do anything," Whishaw told Variety. "I don't know what that should be, but it seems to me like it should be something quite radical, something really different. It's got to change; it's got to keep changing. We're in different times now. There will always be people who want it to stick to the way it was whenever ago, and they're important, because they love these films. But I think you can do both. You can honour the character and the tradition, and you can push it forward, too. And I think you have to, if it's not just going to become a kind of museum piece."

Q, a tech wizard and gadgets master, is a mainstay of the Bond films, though Ben Whishaw's version of the character made his first appearance only in Skyfall, the third movie that featured Daniel Craig as 007. Whishaw also appeared in the last film in the franchise, Spectre.

Whishaw has fulfilled his contract for three Bond movies, but he hopes to continue portraying Q in the James Bond films.

Whishaw last played a gay man in the 2019 TV series A Very English Scandal (and won a Golden Globe for the role). He's also starred in Mary Poppins Returns and The Danish Girl, and provided the voice of Paddington in the movies about the talking toy bear.

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