A new James Bond won't be chosen until he has a villain to fight

When asked how the next Bond movie might reflect "societal changes", Broccoli indicated that such things are always on his mind when it comes to the character:

"We always sit down with our writers and start by thinking about what the world is afraid of? We start by asking, 'Who is the Bond villain?'

Fleming's original Bond stories were a product of the Cold War, and in the first of them Bond battles the Soviet intelligence agency SMERSH. When Daniel Craig took on the role of 007 in "Casino Royale," the world's fear after 9/11 was terrorists. Thus, the villain of this film, The Number (Mads Mikkelsen), was a man who finances them. However, according to Broccoli, politics aren't the only thing that goes into making a Bond villain:

"We're trying to focus on that as the uber kind of story, and then we also want to look at Bond's emotional life, and what he's personally going to be dealing with that he hasn't had to deal with before So he has two big issues in movies - one is geopolitical and the other is personal."

Later Bond films leaned heavily on the personal conflict side of things; Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) in 'Skyfall' was a dark reflection of Bond while Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) in 'Spectre' was recast as Bond's adoptive brother. Comments on the surveillance state have fallen by the wayside. "No Time To Die" also dwells more on tragedy than sociology, despite a casual reflection on the real world; Safin (Rami Malek) is a bio-terrorist in a film released during a global pandemic.

If a good balance between geopolitical and personal conflict is key for a great Bond villain, then restoring that balance in the next film will be key.