We already knew the upcoming James Bond movie, No Time to Die, would be a celebration of British motoring. Photographers spotted Daniel Craig driving a Land Rover Series III, while the film’s “Bond Car” will be an all-new electric Aston Martin. So, it’s no surprise the film will also feature the new 2020 Land Rover Defender — and that an image of that car would leak from the expansive production.
An Instagram user who goes by @shedlocktwothousand seems to have done the honors, revealing the vehicle on Monday night. We don’t know how much this film-spec vehicle differs from the production version; we’d expect the blacked-out detailing might be an option, but probably not the winch. It appears to be the five-door Defender 110, which is expected to launch first.
Preliminary reaction? It’s about what we would have expected from the camouflaged Defender photos making the rounds. It has some traditional Defender styling cues, like the checkered plating. It bears some resemblance to Land Rover’s DC100 concept from 2011, but with a more squared-off front end.
Land Rover had a complicated task building the new Defender. It had to convert a body-on-frame icon to modern unibody construction. It had to nod to the old while embracing Land Rover’s current identity as a luxury brand. And it had to accomplish both while not looking like a rebadged Discovery. We can reserve judgment until the full reveal, but based on this shot, the new Defender seems to be on point.
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