Bond. James Bond.
Whenever those three iconic words are uttered onscreen, everyone will get a mental image of Daniel Craig, Sean Connery, or my personal favourite Pierce Brosnan, in a tuxedo and looking like the textbook definition of suave.
It is the most memorable introduction of a fictional character in cinema history, but don’t expect that phrase to be uttered anytime soon by a woman according to long time Bond executive producer Barbara Broccoli.
In an interview with The Guardian, Broccoli dismissed any Doctor Who-esque gender switch for 007, saying that the character is and will forever be male.
Bond is male. He’s a male character. He was written as a male and I think he’ll probably stay as a male.
Now before you get out your pitchforks, Broccoli does have her reasons behind this decision.
She points out that Bond is a defiantly male character created in the 50s and is imbued with traits from that era. Couple that with fans still constantly comparing the latest movies with the early Sean Connery releases back in the 1960s, it is simply impossible to recreate Bond as a feminist character because it just won’t work.
She has a point. Bond is strictly a male fantasy character and masculinity is his core, and casting a woman in the role diminishes that point. And besides, the character is just ridiculous so why bother even tinkering with it.
Agreed.
Broccoli’s reasoning was followed up by her suggestion to create more original female characters instead.
We don’t have to turn male characters into women. Let’s just create more female characters and make the story fit those female characters.
It certainly is a good idea and Atomic Blonde is a good example of how to pull off a kickass female spy movie. However, I have a better idea that will give us all the badass female spy tropes we want in a movie while still remaining tangentially tied to Bond: give Bond girls their own movies.
Think about it, nearly all the Bond girls are forced to play second fiddle to the super spy in each of the 007 movies, leaving well-developed characters like Vesper Lynd and Pussy Galore to make do with what limited screen time they’re given.
It would be amazing to watch the stories of every Bond girl be given the attention they deserve before 007 even enters the picture. Hell, I’ll even settle for a Bond movie from the woman’s perspective. Just imagine it: Halfway through the movie, this suave guy in a tux turns up, they have a great night, and then she ends up saving the world.
If they ever make a movie about Michelle Yeoh’s character Wai Lin from Tomorrow Never Dies, I would be a very happy camper.