He’s a lucrative cultural export – and as unreconstructed as secret agents come. Now, as Daniel Craig’s final instalment finally hits the cinemas, many are calling for a new kind of 007 – but is the franchise too conservative to make the leap? Guardian film editor Catherine Shoard surveys the history of an $8.5bn cultural institution
Throughout the
Coronavirus pandemic, blockbuster after blockbuster gave up on the cinema and went straight to our TV screens – but one franchise was simply too huge to take that route. Now, after endless delays, No Time To Die is finally coming to the big screen. And Daniel Craig’s last
James Bond movie is as close to a guaranteed
box office success as you are likely to find.
But as well as a commercial titan, the James Bond series has always told us something about a certain idea of Britishness – white, male, misogynist, and reluctant to give up on the idea that only he can save the world. And as
Amazon pays $8.45bn (£6.17bn) to buy studio MGM and take control of the character’s future, many are sceptical that calls for a new breed of secret agent – one who might even be a person of colour, or a woman – will be heeded with such a loyal and conservative fanbase to keep onside.