Why Michael Madsen’s Damian Falco Only Appears In One Bond Movie

screenrant.com:

While Michael Madsen made an impression as NSA agent Damian Falco in Die Another Day, there’s a good reason why this was the only James Bond movie to feature the character. Although Pierce Brosnan’s version of James Bond harkened back to the campy antics of Roger Moore’s 007, some elements of his cinematic outings were played straight. For example, the dark opening to Die Another Day, which sees Bond trapped in a North Korean prison for over a year, seems like it came straight out of one of Daniel Craig’s gritty mid-00s 007 outings.

Similarly, Michael Madsen’s appearance as Damian Falco in Die Another Day is another out-of-place element of the campy adventure. While Brosnan’s final movie as 007 is mostly a cartoon-y affair filled with ice palaces and invisible cars, Madsen’s gruff senior NSA agent is a more grounded, brooding supporting star. Madsen still manages to make an impact as Jinx’s boss, despite how tonally jarring the part is at times, which makes it a surprise that the character never returned in later James Bond movies.

Related: Why Two Roger Moore’s Bond Movies Used The Same Opening

However, there is an obvious explanation for why, even though Bond’s CIA informant Felix Leiter has been seen in plenty of 007 outings, his NSA collaborator Falco never cropped up in the franchise again. Although Madsen is a memorable addition to the cast as Bond’s ally and the boss of Halle Berry’s heroine, because Die Another Day was Brosnan’s final Bond movie, the Tarantino collaborator never appeared in the series again. While understandable, this was still unfortunate, as the grizzled Madsen would arguably have been better suited to the next decade’s more grounded, grittier Daniel Craig Bond movies than Brosnan’s campiest,