A fairly serious question from a guy in the States...

24

Comments

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 23,697MI6 Agent

    That would be a huge mistake, but I think it's very unlikely.

  • BondClothingBondClothing Posts: 538MI6 Agent

    I think an even more realistic conversation to have would be whether Amazon has the stones to use a nation state-based villain in any new movie. I think China is a far greater threat to the world than Mother Russia but who knows what is possible with Amazon's commercial interests around the globe. We know EON got flack for using North Korea in Die Another Day, what do you all think?

    Lifestyle guide to the products and locations featured in the James Bond films.
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,821MI6 Agent

    It's a good point about The Boys, that is quite critical of the whole nationalist thing, that may be a positive sign.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 23,697MI6 Agent
    edited February 2025


    This has been the case for a long time. The closest we got in modern times was the workers' paradise of North Korea in DAD, but even then colonel Moon went rouge and his father represented the NK regime.

  • BondClothingBondClothing Posts: 538MI6 Agent
    Lifestyle guide to the products and locations featured in the James Bond films.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 23,697MI6 Agent
    edited February 2025

    So has Russia, Iran, Syria, Myanmar , Congo. As i pointed out, the Bond movies has hardly ever had state-based villains. China in GF is the only one I can think of now. So if i remember correctly, China is the only country in Bond history that's been a main villain (in partnership with Goldfinger).

  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,821MI6 Agent

    Same again in YOLT, isn't it? I guess Russia is sort of the enemy in FYEO, although I think Kristatos is more out for himself and trying to arrange a sale to them, is that right?

    I think the ski bit in TSWLM might be the first time 007 fights non-rogue Russians on screen..? I don't think he even does that in FRWL.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 23,697MI6 Agent

    Yes, you're right about YOLT.

  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 23,697MI6 Agent

    BondClothing is on to something even though he's wrong in thinking China has been treated as a special case by not being the villain in the Bond movies. I can't think of any current action franchises that has ever used China as villain other than James Bond, but that's because the series has such a long history. But the Bond producers (and pretty much all western film producers) has avoided antagonizing China in the last few decades because it's huge market and the Chinese government has the power to block out a movie and retaliate against a studio or film maker if they feel offended. Richard Gere has suffered this fate. So for the film studios it's money issue, not a political issue.

  • BondClothingBondClothing Posts: 538MI6 Agent
    edited February 2025

    When I say state-based villains I include rogue actors like in FYEO, OP, TLD and DAD. It's laughable to say Russia has never been the villain in a James Bond film. General Gogol would disagree.


    I don't think China is a special case, but ignoring China now would be like ignoring the Soviet Union in the 80s. I'm glad we agree on the power of the Chinese market.

    Lifestyle guide to the products and locations featured in the James Bond films.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 23,697MI6 Agent
    edited February 2025

    If you include rogue players the numbers change, of course. The comparison with the USSR in the 80's doesn't quite work because the Soviet Union wasn't a market for the Bond movies. I doubt the words "We can't have Russian villain because we'll lose a fortune in the Russian bootleg VHS market" was ever spoken in EON offices in the 80s. It's about money, not politics.

  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,821MI6 Agent

    Oh yes, good work.

    I don’t think rogue agents count as making the state a villain: in OP for example it’s Gogol who kills the baddie.

  • LoeffelholzLoeffelholz The United States, With LovePosts: 8,984Quartermasters
    edited February 2025

    Cheers brother 🍻 Disagreement in politics ought not lead to vanishing threads. But here, it does, because my opinions apparently chafe like coarse-grade sandpaper, and I have bemoaned the intrusion of politics on this site for YEARS. Thus, I try to do my part by not opining…especially since I’d like to one day visit the UK without threat of arrest 👀

    Check out my Amazon author page! Mark Loeffelholz
    "I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
    "Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
  • 00_Jona00_Jona Posts: 117MI6 Agent
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,821MI6 Agent

    Oh gosh, unless you think Barbel and ajb have the power of arrest for breaking the site rules, please read some more accurate news sources.

  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,821MI6 Agent

    Gosh that must be true, it's on youtube and a man I recognise. And yes, that act was amended. If you think there's no free speech in the UK, check out the country where their leader is now stopping news outlets he doesn't like from attending press briefings from the heart of government, and have a think about why that is and what he's trying to do.

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 41,836Chief of Staff

    We're now well off the subject of James Bond's future. Please return to that or the thread will be closed.

  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 685MI6 Agent
    edited February 2025

    One of the reasons S.P.E.C.T.R.E was so useful was that it allowed Bond to fight a corporate terrorist villain that wasn't state-based but potentially affiliated with enemy countries (consider the occasions where S.P.E.C.T.R.E worked on behalf of China or cut deals with the Russians). S.P.E.C.T.R.E also gave Bond a recurring non-ideological foe whose ranks could continually refreshed, and which combined the two great villains of our century: the international terrorist group and the multi-national corporation. Unfortunately the past two Bond films fumbled when handling such a useful recurring foe: Spectre wanted to introduce and wrap up the organization in one film and NTTD brought S.P.E.C.T.R.E back just to kill it. In retrospect, it might have been better to have saved S.P.E.C.T.R.E for the next Bond actor. On the other hand, by the time Bond 26 comes out audiences will have likely forgotten about the past two Bond films and might be open to a new and different incarnation of S.P.E.C.T.R.E---just as John Gardner was able to resurrect the organization under new leadership.

  • chrisisallchrisisall Western Mass, USAPosts: 9,104MI6 Agent

    I'm just thinking that in Russia, you can't make a movie that's not approved of by the state. I'm fearful that a Bond movie produced here may soon have to be 'approved of' as well. Sanitized and/or comedied up beyond recognition.... I really wish they'd sold Bond to a UK company.... but Amazon had the $$$$$.

    Dalton & Connery rule. Brozz was cool.
    #1.TLD 2.LTK 3.TND 4.GF 5.YOLT 6.DAF 7.TMWTGG 8.TWINE 9.DN 10.SP
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 41,836Chief of Staff

    I really wish they hadn't sold Bond at all.

  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,821MI6 Agent

    Technically they haven't! 😁

  • SeanIsTheOnlyOneSeanIsTheOnlyOne Posts: 723MI6 Agent

    This section looks particularly worrying:

    During a retrospective video package celebrating their careers, the duo hinted at the franchise’s future. In a telling exchange, Wilsonreferred to the next Bond as “he” before Broccoli quickly interjected: “Or she."

    Is the ultimate nightmare coming?

  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,821MI6 Agent
    edited February 2025

    Or she's teasing oversensitive people on the internet...

    It's probably quite refreshing now she knows it's not her problem anymore.

  • BondClothingBondClothing Posts: 538MI6 Agent
    edited February 2025

    What a load of bull... You let a guy with dirty blonde hair become Bond and you start a slippery slope....

    Lifestyle guide to the products and locations featured in the James Bond films.
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,821MI6 Agent

    Blimey buddy, she made a joke.

    I'm saying that being able to make a throwaway cheeky gag like that is probably quite refreshing knowing that she won't have reporters taking it seriously every time she's asked about Bond from now on because she can say she's nothing to do with it. Don't take it so personally.

  • SeanIsTheOnlyOneSeanIsTheOnlyOne Posts: 723MI6 Agent

    You may be right. Anyway it's not something I'd have expected from her because she probably knows many people are concerned about the future of the franchise and, most of all, the future of the character.

    Now I'm seriously considering the possibility of having 'Jane Bond'...which is something I'm just not interested in, like many of us I guess.

    To be honest, I'm incredibly worried about the coming decisions from Amazon. If it has to be something like 'Emily Blunt to be the next Bond', please make it quick and painless...

    @Number24

  • chrisisallchrisisall Western Mass, USAPosts: 9,104MI6 Agent

    Let me just remind you that after 24 films they KILLED Bond. To get Craig back for one more. For money.

    Dalton & Connery rule. Brozz was cool.
    #1.TLD 2.LTK 3.TND 4.GF 5.YOLT 6.DAF 7.TMWTGG 8.TWINE 9.DN 10.SP
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,821MI6 Agent

    The whole history of Bond has been for money.

  • chrisisallchrisisall Western Mass, USAPosts: 9,104MI6 Agent

    Not for creativity, fun or storytelling? JUST money?

    Dalton & Connery rule. Brozz was cool.
    #1.TLD 2.LTK 3.TND 4.GF 5.YOLT 6.DAF 7.TMWTGG 8.TWINE 9.DN 10.SP
This discussion has been closed.