Read an interesting thread about 007 on r/fixingmovies today. One person commented:
I think the James Bond, lord forgive me for using this term, Universe.....sigh....is heavily underutilized. Where is the 003 film? The 009 film? I have no issue with Bond remaining a white male if the rest of the cadre of 00s is tapped. Think of four part film over two years - Start with 007, at the end of the film he "hands off" to 003, fill in your cameos of 007 and 009, and then the third film where 003 "hands off" to 009, with appropriate cameos and call backs, to a finale of the films with all three.
Then you could have a female 00, a black or even Asian 00, and James Bond all working together.
I thought it sounded interesting.
this more or less sums up my thoughts about James Bond, the untapped potential of that fictional universe, and how the producers of the franchise have locked themselves into a very narrow, formulaic approach that hasn't at all aged well.
Were I the producers, I would reboot the series from the ground up after Craig's departure. I would focus on building a massive universe.
-007 would be just one guy in a massive cinematic universe. Let's say he's the Tony Stark of the Bond universe and M is the Nick Fury. The first movie or two is his story, then we see subsequent films expand with appearances by other double-0 agents. We might see cameos of new, younger agents in 007's second film, as he and M build the modern double-0 section into an elite spy force.
-Those other double-0 agents eventually get their own films that may or may not feature Bond himself in some cameo appearance, or perhaps assisting--hell, we could just leave him out of these altogether. Maybe he is even the butt of jokes on occasion, like we hear a female agent speak of how he had the nerve to hit on her or something. Or someone jokes about how he doesn't even try to go undercover and just uses his real name half the time.
-Felix Leiter could get his own CIA themed spinoff series of films, still set in the same overall universe. Perhaps we might see a Jinx Jordan type character get a film as well.
-The old timer traditionalists who want Bond to remain a chauvinistic male win, and the people who want the universe more diverse and representative win, as there are endless possibilities for spinoff characters of every sex and ethnicity.
-There could even be movies focused on telling popular villains' and henchpersons' stories. Imagine films or a TV series about SPECTRE! Imagine a movie about Jaws or Alec Trevalyan
-Imagine a TV series in the vein of Agents of Shield that focuses more on episodes telling the stories of the faceless "little people" who operate behind the scenes whilst the double-0 agents get all the recognition.
-While this reboot universe would reuse a lot of characters from the old films, they would be fresh stories and not indebted to the continuity (or lack of) established in the old film series. It would be fun to see reimagined interpretations of old favorite characters alongside new characters.
-There would be possibilities for movies of all types and tones. You could have some empathizing the slapstick comedic approach of the Moore films, you could have darker, hardboiled stories a la Dalton, and so on. You could have some films set farther back in this timeline, like imagine one set in 1960s featuring a Conneryesque agent, and focusing more on the roots of the double-0 section of MI6, then it flashes forward to show that this agent has become a sort of mentor figure to the younger guard, although some of them also see him as an outdated chauvinist. Not unlike the MCU where each film has its own style and feel whilst remaining part of the same overall continuity.
-I would keep the series relevant to current events without making it indebted. Obviously it would be a fictional version of our own universe, but topical issues might still be addressed in creative ways.
If EoN had any sense hope about keeping this franchise alive and thriving, they'd take this approach instead of keeping to the same stale formula with occasional cosmetic changes.
