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Will the Black Female 007 Boost James Bond Franchise, or Kill It?

Although much of this is speculation at this time, news that the 25th movie in the James Bond franchise will feature a Black female 007, sparks exploration of the hero’s journey, feminism, Progressivism, and the marginalization of the modern man. Will this feminist innovation revive the series, or kill it?

Although much of this is speculation at this time, news that the 25th movie in the James Bond franchise will feature a Black female 007, sparks exploration of the hero’s journey, feminism, Progressivism, and the marginalization of the modern man. Will this feminist innovation revive the series, or kill it?

66 replies on “Will the Black Female 007 Boost James Bond Franchise, or Kill It?”

What I can’t understand is why Hollywood can’t just start a new character? I liked watching Zoe Saldana in Columbiana, or Angelina Jolie in Salt. Why not just start a new “Spy thriller” with a female lead that has nothing to do with James Bond? Like the guys said they have to destroy everything that is fun. SMH. Silly libs, can’t they just leave us be?!? lol

Suggestions for the title of the new Bond movie.
1. View to a kill the Patriarchy
2. Diamonds are a symbol of capitalist oppression
3. The spy who #metooed me
4. On zer Majesty’s secret service
5. Octopronouns
6. Dr. No audience
7. Licence to kill all men

Bill’s right on the money.
As Ernst Stavero Blofeld once said, “Kill Bond!!! Now!!!”

SPECTRE couldn’t do it but WOKE might just pull it off.

I saw Steve Greens post on fb and thought, brilliant! Could it be time for a female Rambo? Come on Hollywood, lets get Joanne Rambo, or Jane Rambo in play.

OMG, I’m such a huge fan of the Craig “Casino Royale”!!!!! One of my top movies of all time. Craig is the best Bond because he has the best movie and script besides pulling it off with his acting chops. 15-year old me can never abandon Sean Connery as 007, but, …..

Hey, the all-female Ghostbusters breathed new life into their franchise!!!

(…of course, they did it by so disgusting the fans that a new, good Ghostbusters in line with existing canon had to be made to write theirs out of existence…)

A year or two ago we were discussing potential new James Bonds in the pub. After a fair few white (and one or two black) male names had been thrown about, I said, as a joke, “Don’t be daft, we all know it’s going to be Whoopi Goldberg.”…I’m giving up making political jokes.

Ghostbusters, Bond, Dr Who…now they’re women, hear me snore.

I actually don’t agree that anything after Casino Royale was any good. Skyfall had an absolutely unbelievable set piece with the villain causing an underground train to crash exactly where he wanted it to. Stuff like that is no different to Roger Moore’s Bond and the space lasers. Same applied to Pierce Brosnan and the invisible car stunt, plus all that driving – mainly in reverse – via his smart phone. But yes – all the points against “Jane Bond” made were spot on target.

Oh please. The very first Bond flick had the mysterious Dr. No shooting down American space rockets from his secret underwater lair.

Third Bond: Manipulating the price of gold with radiation!

Fourth Bond: Mysteriously well-funded criminal organization steals nukes to get diamonds.

Fifth Bond: Bad guys are stealing spaceships out of orbit, forcing Sean Connery to disguise himself as a Japanese.

I could go on, but I’ll spare us all.

If you’re looking for realism in a Bond movie, look at “From Russia with Love” and “Casino Royale” — and NO further.

Actually, I’d give similar props to both Dalton movies, had they not been held back by EON’s refusal to reboot the franchise to match Dalton’s younger, angrier Bond.

my point Steve would be consistency. Casino Royale was for the most part plausible, and set a precedent. The London Underground train crash and the villain’s plan in Skyfall was completely at odds with what CR had established. Connery’s Bond was wish fulfillment and escapism, so I forgive the fantastic scenarios. OHMSS was, in my opinion, the best Bond movie of them all. The best music score, no implausible gadgets or the like, and more romance than all the other Bond movies combined.

I too have watched all the films in order more than once, but I did not remember until listening to this that there was a “new” James Bond film I had forgotten to see.

“HANG ON! I’M ON THE PHONE!” is my new all-time favorite line from the BW franchise. How on God’s green earth have they made ten years of this show without that ever happening before??

Did his “on air” sign fall down? With the budget they have I wouldn’t expect a nice glowy NEON sign but a sheet of paper and some tape would work just fine.

Bill, do we need to hold a fundraiser?

The studio is in a nondescript building, with hallways so dark I lost spatial orientation, feeling my way along the wall to the door…which is always locked. A neon sign would illuminate the entire hallway, and perhaps violate some sort of covenant. A paper sign would be invisible.

The prototype of James Bond came in the form of Patrick McGoohan in the Danger Man series. If you’ve never seen it, YouTube it. You won’t be sorry.

The opening in the series’ first year even has McGoohan introducing his character by saying, “My name is Drake. John Drake.”

Hollywood wanted McGoohan to be the first Bond, but he declined. He was a devout Christian, and he felt the questionable morals of the Bond character would have compromised his beliefs.

Here’s the first episode of Danger Man. Look closely at the Italian villa near the end. You’ll recognize it as The Village, used in McGoohan’s second project called The Prisoner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiFZJ_PlLVM

I would LOVE a film about the woman warriors in Black Panther. In my eyes, they made BP look like a soyboy. I would pay to see that.

And Hollywood? If you’re looking for a strong female spy, there is no need to re-invent a franchise. Robert Heinlein gave us one years ago, and she has yet to see the large screen.

Read my username. Read the book. You’ll agree, also.

I had not associated your username with the Heinlein character. Friday is one of my favorite Heinlein books and very possibly (almost certainly) my favorite Heinlein character.

Now, who is your avatar?

That would be me. The for real me.

I loved Friday when I first read it. Thought she was a kick ass broad.

I have no problem with a female spy of 007 caliber, BUT…why do they have to steal James Bond, an establish MALE character who is both WHITE and BRITISH as specified by Ian Fleming? This is at best THEFT of intellectual property canon by the producers and pandering by the production companies as well. Is Hollywood so bankrupt of originality and creativity that it could not create a Bond-like female character of color who had her own franchise? It is not a question of is an actor good enough? It is a matter of canon. We also see this racial pandering thing going on in all our long-established franchises. The first time I remember was in the Wild, Wild West remake where Will Smith was cast as James West. I have seen all of the original WWW TV shows and in all of them they were played by Robert Conrad, a white man. That established the canon and the character. Then they cast Smith for the movie, who is a capable actor of playing any role, but he was not and will never be James West in anyone’s minds who loved the original. It breaks canon to take a character who is Asian, Hispanic, White, Native or black and long established to be of that race and sex and then suddenly switch the character to another race or sex that is not canon. That’s a break of the story arc, no matter how good the actor is you use.
It also shows a huge creativity deficit. You see producers trying to cash in on a pas thing that worked (an old successful TV show) but cast with different racial characters in order to “show diversity” and bring in a racial vote. Look, stories have no requirement for diversity. Sherlock Holmes does not need a Mexican Watson, any more than the Green Hornet or the Lone Ranger need a white sidekick. They are what they are as created by their originators. Rather than hijack a long-established story and canon, creators need to CREATE their own characters! Why can’t we have a fully-capable female British agent, who has a 00 number, but who is her own character with her own story, traits and character? Why does she have to hijack 007 specifically and break canon? Why can’t she be 001 or 009? You could establish one for each kind of character I suppose, but it is wrong if they go back and try to make 007 a female and a character of color, because James Bond was neither. Now if James is retired and they are merely passing on the number, fine. But I get really tired as a viewer and an author by these types of pandering exploitation films by Hollywood. Next we’ll have an Asian Indiana Jones. Hollywood no longer favors original stories because they’re not “sure things” (money matters in their boardrooms) and so returns to remaking the same story over an over, just changing the sex or race of the character to buy SJW affection. It’s pandering, and they need to stop it. Create original characters and stories and develop them. That’s what capable creators do.

There were historical women warriors. However, they were very rare, which is why they stood out so much. Boudica was remembered because she was unusual. Same for Joan of Arc. But the idea that the numbers of women warriors in the past is equal the number of male warriors is historically incorrect, but the SJW wish that men and women be equal in all things is now being used to brainwash young people. I’m all for equality in rights, but men and women are physically different and historically most women were not warriors. But if you want a female warrior movie, fine, but create an original and then TELL A GOOD STORY. This is something Hollywood has forgotten how to do.

Give her another 00 number and it might work if the story is good. But not 007. That’s theft. And who goes to a movie about a spy assassin with a license to kill on the SJW side anyway? Bond is a nationalist, a patriot and he carries a gun with a cold-blooded ability to kill.

Besides….don’t we already have that in Le Femme Nikita?

Bingo, guy!

Nikita, Marvel’s Black Widow, most any other Black Widow archetype character, or a serious blonde chameleon who uses her apparent vapidity to slide through corridors of power and intrigue while going under estimated? History doesn’t speak as much about the female spies because they tended to be softer, quieter, but just as, if not more deadly either individually or by the secrets they snuck out. If they wanted a grrl power movie I’m sure there are at least a dozen well documented stories of French females working the Resistance taking out Nazis on both sides of the line and with the french atmosphere there would be plenty of room for romance/sex.

I seem to recall some chatter when Die Another Day came out, that there was a plan to spin off Halle Berry’s character in to something else. That would have been preferable to turning 007 into a woman. If you want to make a spy movie with a female lead, make it. If it’s any good people will see it.

I was at MGM at the time. Yeah there was talk of spinning off Halle Berry. The impression I got was that talk was mostly coming outta Sony Pictures and not out of Danjaq and EON Productions.

Didn’t they just make that movie and call it Atomic Blonde? IIRC, the reviews on the film were pretty OK.

Personally, I’m just tired of Waif Fu Warriors. Wonder Woman is the exception because she is a demigoddess.

Now that I think about it, let’s not rush to judgement. This movie could be awesome if the chick that she makes out with is totally hot!

Judgment reserved, but I doubt anything can surpass the chemistry between Craig & Naomie Harris in Skyfall. If they were smart they might try taking her character further, instead of insisting on replacing Bond himself with a female counterpart.

Your idea is good, although it makes the mistaken assumption that the goal here is to produce quality entertainment that will make money. The Radical Left wants to destroy a great franchise, just as they did with Star Wars, Star Trek, etc.

…which of course I realized as I was typing that. But I chose escapism to a non-insane world over confronting it.

They definitely had something, and Eva Green got points with me for challenging Bond in new ways. (The dinner-on-the-train dialogue was tremendous. “How was your lamb?” “Skewered. One sympathizes.” Perfect.) But Eve’s great lines and ability to handle both a sniper rifle and a cutthroat razor won me over even more. Maybe it’s that she seemed a worthier foil/adversary. Maybe the element of danger added to the spark…

“In your defense, a moving target is much harder to hit.”
“Then you’d better keep moving.”
Oh, the look she followed him with. 🙂

Yes! I actually cried at the end of that movie. (And yes, I’ve watched all the movies, in order, more than once.) I wanted to yell at him that if he would just turn her 180 on that roof so that her head was down, he might be able to revive her. (At least, according to Patrick O’Brien in one of the Aubrey/Maturin novels.)

That could actually work, if they got very creative with the fight choreography and the high-speed chase routes were wheelchair-accessible.

I should dig it up… I work w/ a film fest and we had this short film come in once from Britain. The story was, this paraplegic guy chases down a few yobs who’ve stolen a woman’s purse. He chases them down, gets the purse back, and then has to escape from the 4 guys. Guys who think our hero will be an easy mark case he’s got no legs. But through a bunch of exciting chase scenes, fight scenes and parkour level stunts, our boy is able to win the day.

So yeah, it could work. I think you’d need a lot better talent than is currently getting A-list movies these days.

Ah, back from vacation. So, did I miss anything last week?

Back on topic, I can’t remember who wrote this, but the best point about Aliens being a great Girl Power (TM) movie: Vazquez was only the third most badass female in that flick!

Farro wasn’t a bad-ass. But she was pretty cool. What w/ those aviator glasses and all.

Ah, that makes more sense. And all of these years I’ve also been mishearing what the shuttle pilots from Starcraft have been saying…

Yeah, well, my dad and both uncles were pilots. And I likely would have been too but I suck at math, can’t see fer crap and don’t respond well to authority

There are THREE Hemsworth brothers. Just sayin’…

Is Miss Moneypenny going to become Mister Moolanickel?

Hollywood has lost its ability to come up with a good original story, for the most part, (I said good). Otherwise, they could come up with female characters for a good Ripley-type hero. Since they rely so heavily on remakes and existing franchises, their only avenue, they think, is to recast male heroes into female heroes. And it fails every time. Normal men go to see male heroes for the shootouts, fights and car chases. Normal women see them for the good looking men.

Miss Moneypenny will still be female, but she will be “Questioning” and so the “risque” banter between 007 and Moneypenny will continue in Woke fashion. Until film 2 when Moneypenny comes out.

Hollywood has lost its ability to come up with a good original story, for the most part, (I said good)
I am not sure I agree. I mean, to beat the heat my wife and I were going to take in a movie. Here is what’s playing.
The Lion King (that was a good original story, 20+ yrs ago)
Spider-Man (Marvel, Sequel)
Toy Story 4 (Sequel)
Aladdin (See Lion King above)
The secret life of pets 2 (Sequel)
Avengers: Endgame (Marvel, Sequel)

So much newness it boggles the mind. 😉

LOL – remakes and sequels and remakes, oh my! Avengers: Endgame was good though. At least it finished a continuing story arc.

Gotta disagree w/ Scott. Barbara Broccoli does own the family empire. From my time at MGM I learned she’s very serious about maintaining it. Story I heard was that the Sony execs were expecting to take over the series and got totally rolled by Barbara.

I find it hard to believe that Barbara would allow this to happen to her legacy. But she’s getting on in years so she may not be driving the bus any more.

Something about the creative production forces behind the Bond franchise being in favor of or bending to the will will of the current SJW preferences in casting and story.

Considering it was essentially a remake of Thunderball with a too old Connery, I don’t think it was supposed to be good. Just profitable.

It was a cash cow that Kevin McClory had been champing at the bit to make ever since he won his lawsuit against Fleming. And really the only reason it was made is because he was able to sign Connery.

Can’t wait to find out who the “Bond girl” will be! They could kill two birds with one stone with this one!

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