Bond 26 (TBA) Thread: 007 "Mid Thirties, Not A Rookie" in Next Installment

[AndyDursin]

Well that certainly inspires confidence doesn't it? I mean what does that even mean?

Will Bond give birth in the next film? Will they cast a TRANS-feminist LGBTQ++ in the role?

[Monterey Jack]

Blow me. If the next Bond is a "sensitive" dandy who respects women, then I'm out. For good.

[Eric W.]

Soon we will see more "map" references. Do you know what that means? Minor Attracted Person. As ridiculous as "food insecurity." No it's called being hungry or starving and these people are predators and perverts.

We're already there with the grooming going on in schools and the rest of it. Maybe Bond can hit that for us, too.

[Monterey Jack]

Bond is a man who sleeps with a woman to get information, sees her murdered in front of him, and his only response is a blase "That's a waste of good scotch". Anything else is a different character entirely. I would rather see the series end entirely than see it mutate into a limp-wristed, politically-correct pile of mush.

[Eric Paddon]

“Bond is evolving just as men are evolving”

Gee, that has me conjuring images of a 2001 Star Child ending!

[mkaroly]

I am not surprised by any of this.

[Paul MacLean]

When are these people going to learn that no one wants to see every fictional character remolded to fit "this week's attitudes"?

Even in the 1950s, when Bond first arrived, he was the antithesis of that era's morals -- an era when the nuclear family and marital fidelity were the backbone of society (and this is one reason why his character appealed to men, and women).

The character of James Bond has never lived a lifestyle I personally approve of -- but that's not the point. His ego, his ruthlessness, his fondness for cigarettes are hard liquor and womanizing are part of what make the character interesting.

Society has changed since Bond's character was created, but the idea of a James Bond who is woke, and "in touch with his feelings" makes as much sense as a James Bond who is a faithful suburban husband and teetotaler.

But remember, we live in an era in which college students are given coloring books and puppies to help alleviate the "trauma" of a presidential election which didn't go their way.

[mkaroly]

They're handing the baton off to the next generation, which doesn't see, understand, or accept things in the ways the previous generations did. On the one hand the people in charge of the Bond films are biting the hand that fed them - the support that two generations have given the franchise enabled that franchise to exist. But on the other hand, in the cultural climate we all live in now, I am sure the people in charge feel like they have to make the changes in order for the franchise to continue to exist and for films to continue to be made.

I think it's silly to deviate from the core character, since doing so creates an entirely different character that just shares the same name as the original. One could argue that the different actors who played Bond changed bits and pieces of the literary Bond character, but those changes were minor and 'interpretations' that catered to the actor's personality/abilities. The core character remained the same throughout. I am not surprised that the core character is going to be changed for future films for the reasons stated above. A new generation will embrace the films as its iteration of Bond. Nothing the older generation can do about it.

It is still really weird to me that the people in charge of Bond did not go back and use John Gardner's stories for movies. I have read through two books recently (License Renewed and For Special Services), both of which are highly 'cinematic' reads. I look forward to reading the rest of them - missed opportunity by not making some of these books into films.

[AndyDursin]

I am sure the people in charge feel like they have to make the changes in order for the franchise to continue to exist and for films to continue to be made.

And yet TOP GUN MAVERICK just came one of the highest grossing movies in U.S. history, and didn't feel any need to introduce, say, Disney social engineering into the mix.

This drive to feminize modern men is unseamly and has been going on in contemporary media for some time. It's not going to end well for the people trying to push this ideology, and the Bond people are going to crash and burn by embracing this.

And they will, because they just let Daniel Craig and his politics drive the character into the ground.

[Eric W.]

How sad is it that a movie like Top Gun Maverick is a strange and rare anomaly now?

[AndyDursin]

In the wake of the Broccolis announcing Bond is supposed to be in his mid 30s (i.e. ISN'T going to be a rookie) in the upcoming movie, this article is worth a read (with a lot of salient points):