The news from left field today included the announcement that Lashana Lynch (last seen1 as Maria Rambeau in Captain Marvel) will take over 007. Not as James Bond, but take over the 007 designation in the next movie which is still called Bond 25.
I think I’m not alone in knowing Bond better from the 24 EON movies rather than the 12 Fleming novels and short stories or any of the “extended universe” Bond books. In fact I only have one of those collections in my personal library. I am subscribed to the “James Bond Origin” comic book published by Dynamite, which is wrapping up next month, I believe.
Bond has always been a bit problematic. Bond was originally designed as a blunt instrument of the British Secret Service, and was supposed to be a dull unassuming character who had things happen to him, and he was licensed to kill in the name of the Queen.
The movies made him a bit more glamorous, because that’s how movies handle story telling in that genre. He has always been sexist and that has been a growing problem over the decades. He has always been known for irresponsibly property damage. He has always used his real name, which messed with the proto-mythos of Fleming’s Secret Service.
It was established that the “Double-0” agents were the assassins, and higher number agents were still spies but in other tasks. I can only think of two from the movies: Sean Bean as a renegade 006, and in one of the Connery films he meets up with an agent (I think “182”) in the beginning of the film. She was an office worker forwarding secrets or intelligence or something. The numbering system is otherwise a mystery to me.
The leadership used letters: M and Q being the most popular. In the James Bond Origin comic there is also F. Q is short for Quartermaster, I believe, M possibly for Mission Control, and who knows what else. It’s another muddle in the mythos. I’m sure someone has done the great act of geekery to sort it all out, but I haven’t found it yet. Quora has some interesting answers but they are all on Quora, after all, and should be vetted2.
It is possible that Fleming didn’t sort it all out because he didn’t need to. He needed a framework to tell an espionage story and wasn’t dealing with fans who needed eternal consistency like today’s writers deal with. He had a shtick that worked, and he used it.
The problem with Bond using his name with “007” conflicts with the basic rules of numerical and alphabetical designations. This has led some fans to assume that even the name is passed from person to person, so at most Sean Connery’s character really was named Bond, but George Lazenby’s character was born Alfred Farthing and given the name James Bond when he was assigned the role, etc. This is not as satisfying as simply assuming every time a new actor takes over the role, we are in a reboot. All the bits and bobs we see in the background from earlier films is just fan service.
“M” is clearly a position handed down. Judi Dench’s version mentioned the previous bloke, and we saw Ralph Fienne’s character take over the mantle. I believe Ben Whishaw also mentioned taking over as “Q”, and as far as I’m concerned he should play that role until he dies.
So giving the “007” to another person, in case a black woman, is possibly the final answer. The number is a position in the service, and someone else can be that.
I just wonder how people will react when they realize this black woman is also a cold-blooded killer, just like James Bond, otherwise the 007 designation is meaningless. When has Bond not killed someone during an adventure? I don’t mean the inevitable collateral damage of henchmen, but the actual villains he’s killed.
Bond is a known quantity in our popular culture. We forget that he’s an assassin because it’s dressed up so nicely and the location shots are gorgeous and the stunts outrageous and the costumes fabulous and the bodies titillating. The bad guys, in a good Bond flick, deserve to be killed because they’re so bad. (This was my issue with the Brosnan enemies, but that was a different time and we didn’t know how much we should actually fear the wealthy.)
I, of course, will go see the next movie and possibly the movie after that. I don’t think they’ll mess with a winning formula: Beautiful person goes into beautiful scenery and kills not-so-beautiful people. I’ll only stop going when I get tired of death.
1 By me, in a move, ‘natch.
2 Information Literacy FTW