A few action franchises have leaned hard on the word “ghost” in their titles in the recent past, and it already feels tired. I understand the intent to portray a villain as some shadowy, untouchable force lurking beneath the surface, but the nomenclature is just not right for James Bond.

Besides, Bond already had his “ghost”-adjacent title in Spectre, but that worked because of the legendary, historical S.P.E.C.T.R.E. acronym (and whenever I type the acronym, I have to spell it out because it’s so awesome: Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion). “Ghost,” by comparison, sounds generic and juvenile. The first thing that comes to mind is “boo.”

In my view, the next Bond villain should be out in the open and impossible to ignore, not a methodical cat-petting authority-figurehead. They should be the kind of threat that operates in plain sight and dares Bond to stop them.