James Bond and Aston Martin go hand in hand. In the upcoming Bond adventure — “Skyfall,” which premieres in the U.S. on Nov. 9 — you’ll definitely see the iconic DB5, but the film’s opening sequence will show off the Land Rover Defender double cab pickup.
At the 2012 Paris Motor Show, Jaguar Land Rover displayed one of the Defenders used in the movie, and the truck is on display this month at Harrods in London. (See the video here.) In all, Jaguar Land Rover provided 77 vehicles for use both on-screen and as production support.
“The iconic Land Rover Defender is recognized around the world for its rugged appeal, and the Range Rover is the pinnacle of SUV luxury and capability. Both vehicles are renowned as examples of excellence in British design and engineering,” Global Brand Director for Land Rover John Edwards said in a statement.
The next new Defender is being planned for the U.S. once development of that vehicle is complete, according to this article in The Washington Post. Some reports have the new Defender set as soon as the 2015 model year. The last time the Defender appeared in North America was for the 1997 model year.
We can assume if the new Jaguar Land Rover owners (India’s Tata Motors) wants to make the new Defender as popular worldwide as the previous generation was, we can expect quite a few variations off the same Defender platform. And given that Land Rover has already shown quite a few versions of Gerry McGovern’s DC100 concepts, we should have a pretty good idea of what to expect.
In the meantime, we can only hope a new Defender pickup truck would be as rough and tough as the one seen in the new James Bond movie.
