If Daniel Craig, hired for five films, put on the legendary 007 suit for a final mission in James Bond 25, many are already considering the continuation of one of the longest sagas in the history of cinema. And if the assumptions are going well for his alleged successor (Idris Elba, Tom Hiddleston, Michael Fassbender ...), the latter may well become completely obsolete.
Asked by the Daily Mail about the possibility of seeing a new version of the spy - whether female, colored, or both - the co-producer of the last James Bond, Barbara Broccoli, was confident on this subject :
"These films tend to reflect their time, so we're always trying to push the boundaries a bit further, anything is possible, and today it's Daniel Craig, and I'm very happy, but who knows what the future holds us? "
A position already adopted by Daniel Craig previously, for whom this is of little importance:
"We can do everything we want, as long as it's credible and it works."
The end of the era of the misogynist Caucasian man?
If the question is recurrent, it is today terribly current and fits perfectly in the lineage of a change that we hope to see continue in Hollywood - and beyond.
Already last year, the British cult series Doctor Who has been progressive in making Jodie Whittaker the first woman to play the title role. Although the news offended some, she had delighted the majority of fans, definitely convinced.
Visibly driven by this small revolution, many Internet users began to claim the same thing for the character of James Bond. Many were already chanting the names of Gillian Anderson or Charlize Theron to take over the role.
The late Roger Moore, who had played the agent in no less than seven films, had also expressed his point of view on such a change in 2015:
"I've heard people say that it would take a Bond woman, or a gay Bond, but they could not be Bond, for the simple reason that this is not what Ian Fleming [the creator of the character, Ed. The idea is not to be homophobic, or racist, but simply to be true to the character. "
In the clan of the Conservatives, no one seems to be ready to give up the idea he has of his favorite secret agent. First appeared in the 1953 novel Casino Royale by former British spy and writer Ian Fleming, James Bond has gradually emerged as a symbol of manhood for many white men.
A carefully preserved image in the resulting 26 film adaptations, where each actor lending his features, from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig, had to fill a well-established list of prerequisites: to be beautiful, white, heterosexual and British.
And if the saga is ready to reinvent itself, it has obviously been recorded nowhere that it has to: the actor James Norton (Happy Valley, Grantchester) seems today favorite party in the race for the mythical role. And although talented, he also fulfills, inevitably, all the traditional conditions.