James Bond is probably one of the most loved and popular characters created of all time. The Bond film franchise is the longest running of all time and, with a total box office of more than $7.04 billion, makes it the 6th most grossing film franchise of all time. Created in 1953, by author Ian Fleming, James Bond has become one of the most loved characters ever created. With a loyal and dedicated fan base, it is no wonder that the latest installment to the franchise, ‘No Time to Die’, has come under scrutiny by those very same fans. With the film having gone through director, writer, and date changes, the success of this 25th installment is in question. Particularly because the director, Cary Fukunaga, has come out and insinuated that James Bond doesn’t reflect the times and, according to an article from The Hollywood Reporter by Tatiana Siegel, a post “MeToo”reality.
We Can’t Change the James Bond Character Overnight You Know
In the article, Fukunaga has made it plain that he wants James Bond to be reflective of the current times, including the treatment of the women around him. In the article, he accuses the Bond character of being a rapist and that the Bond women need to be more than contrivances. With the hire of Phoebe Waller-Bridge as co-writer, Fukunaga believes he has helped fulfill that. From The Hollywood Reporter:
“At Fukunaga’s suggestion, Phoebe Waller-Bridge was brought in to work on the draft he wrote with Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, who have worked on every Bond film since 1999’s The World Is Not Enough. The perception was that the Fleabag creator was used, post-reckoning, to make Bond more woke. But Fukunaga dismisses that idea.”
“I think that’s the expectation, a female writing very strong female roles, but that’s something Barbara wanted already,” he insists. “From my very first conversations with [Broccoli], that was a very strong drive. You can’t change Bond overnight into a different person. But you can definitely change the world around him and the way he has to function in that world. It’s a story about a white man as a spy in this world, but you have to be willing to lean in and do the work to make the female characters more than just contrivances.”
James Bond is an Established Character Who Happens to be White…So?
Why do these Hollywood types insist on always emphasizing the color of a mans skin when the role is played by a white guy? Can’t it just be “It’s a
story about a man”? Why is it a story about a white man? The character is James Bond and he happens to be white. Why should that matter? Also, and I’m not sure if producer Barbara Broccoli or Cary Fukunaga understand this, but the James Bond character was created as a white British man that works in MI6. He is an established character. But, now, the producers feel the need to change and evolve the character, that fans have grown to love over decades, to fit their “woke” politics agenda. And to back up that claim, Lashana Lynch, who plays 00 agent Nomi, also confirmed that the movie was woke by stating she never felt like she was standing behind the white guy.
“Cary had big discussions with Barbara and Daniel about how to give the female characters equity, how to keep them in charge of themselves, how to give them solo moments where the audience learns who they are,” she says. “It was really important to empower the female characters as stand-alones. And I think that he kept that in mind throughout the whole shoot. I didn’t feel like Nomi, as a young Black woman, was constantly standing behind the white guy, which, for me, is job done. And that was a very conscious decision for Cary.”
‘No Time to Die’ is Doomed Before it Even Begins
Hollywood is really on a trajectory course for failure. They don’t understand the characters they are presenting anymore and feel the need to constantly ruin these popular characters and franchises with identity politics that don’t represent a majority of the fans or the audience. One of the biggest problems Hollywood has is who they are hiring to helm these big franchises. They are hiring directors that have no experience with big block buster franchises and who are not fans of the material. Cary Fukunaga has three Indie films under his belt and several TV series that he has directed. He might very well be talented, but why was he hired to direct one of the most beloved characters ever created. Why was Cary Fukunaga hired to direct an anniversary installment of the James Bond Franchise? ‘No Time to Die’ will be Daniel Craig’s last time in the role, and might also be one of the costliest failures the franchise has ever seen. And why? Because the director felt the need not to stick with established material and instead focus on appeasing an incredibly small portion of the audience. ‘No Time to Die’ has a big hill to climb if it wants to be profitable. With a budget of $245 million, this film needs to do north of $500 million just to break even. And in the current climate, where audiences are just not that interested in Hollywood’s fill of diversity, representation, and inclusivity, ‘No Time to Die’ will probably join the long list of casualties we have seen at the box office thus far. I might be wrong, and I hope I am, but with Cary Fukunaga and Lashana Lynch both stating the importance they have placed on representation, it would seem that ‘No Time to Die’ is doomed for failure before it even begins.
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