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A Black James Bond? A female James Bond? Diversifying Bond, James Bond…
Does Diversifying James Bond Serve the Franchise?
The release of No Time to Die is due soon (despite the various delays) and what with this being Daniel Craig’s last outing there has been much speculation on the next James Bond to fill Craig’s tuxedo.
While rumors of a female or black Bond had surfaced all the way back to Brosnan’s era, it is worth asking if this change is in line with the characterization of Bond or simply pandering to society?
Ian Fleming created the character of Bond in 1952 as a means of coping with his first marriage and an impending midlife crisis. Fleming himself was born to an aristocratic family in 1908 and created Bond in reaction to the disintegration of the Colonial British Empire and a thirst for adventure. Bond is meant to be a stuffy white shirt facing a changing world.
Be warned that if you haven’t read Fleming’s novels and wish to explore them, while the prose and plot are fantastic, you should know that you are not reading progressive, open-minded literature. You are reading the meanderings of a bigoted aristocrat speaking through his creation. The first James Bond novel is very much a product of its time with hideous quotes like the one below:
