beddo:

If you want it to match the original idea that Flemming had then it would be your typical white high class Brit from the sixties.

Bond started in 1953, just to let you know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_(novel)

Despite the novels being written in the 50's, I think that Samuel Jackson would've made a perfect Bond. Why? Go watch Pulp Fiction. Imagine his character, but on steroids.

Almost every movie they get a new actor who looks totally different, so I don't give a shit really. Also, James Bond isn't a very good series in my eyes anyhow, he seems like some kinda super-hero with no explination as to how he got his super strength, skill and the ability to make all his "stunts" work out. AKA: taking down 20+ African soldiers with two well-placed pistol shots.

Susan Arendt:

Personally, I think it would be fine, so long as he stays male and British. Those are the only two aspects of the character I believe to be sacrosanct.

Also, chest hair. CHEST HAIR.

Yeah, why not and then they could have homosexual Bond and a Miss Bond,
oh and an old Bond.

well it could happen. bod is just a code name given to 007 and when he dies or retires he is replaced. but who cares? why no an asian bond?

PS best bond movie ever was "never say never again"

I don't think it would make much sense. It could be interesting though...

Xvito:
oh and an old Bond.

i think that would be a good idea if its done right.

and as long as Bond be the elegant british thug that he always has been, he can be black, asian, latino or whatever.

Making Bond black would be kind of like making Shaft white.

He can be black, he just has to speak with a British accent. As long as he does that well I'm fine.

I don't know why anyone would be opposed - I mean, yeah, Bond being a white male Briton is a significant part of his character (and races do possess different cultures insofar as they're often still socialized together; there's no denying that) but the way I see it any change is good change when the series begins to lapse into stale iterations (and QoS is dangerously close right now). Plus, it would be interesting to see a female Bond, presuming her personality bore strong resemblances to the original (this is more possible today than in the past due to certain changes in women's socialization) - thusly the Bond spirit could still "survive" even if the gender of the protagonist was different. It is risky, though.

Someone should make a short movie of a black guy in a tux sipping vodka martinis and using 60's pick-up lines on women, just to test how it works. I'm looking at you, Doctorpus. You have too much free time anyway.

James bond does not need changing. It would be better to make an orginal story about a black secret agent if we really need one.

I was leaning toward "yes" from the title, then read the post and realized my mistake.

No, no black bond. Without any regeneration-style in-universe explanation for why he keeps changing body, face, personality, voice and so on, I refuse to watch it anyway, but suddenly going from white to black would just be crossing the line.

Note that I haven't seen any Bond films for the reason above. I asked how it was explained that he kept changing, was told it wasn't explained, Bond is stupid.

Seeing that Bond is a Code Name, and the designation 007 is just a license to commit certain extra legal activities, why should their not be a Bond who is not white and male. I think the idea of a Black Female 007 code named JANES BOND would be a great movie. As long as she is an alcoholic lesbian womanizer who is British clever and attractive.

fish food carl:

As for the topic - HELL NO! Not racist or anything, but Bond isn't black. He is a white character. You just can't change that. What if there was a black Batman, Superman or Spiderman? That would be awful, as those characters are undeniable white.

Batman isn't undeniably white, he's undeniably rich. His ethnicity is irrelevant to his character.

Let's also remember that these characters were created in a time when a black superhero simply wouldn't have been accepted - to say nothing of a black multimillionaire. Times change. If those characters were created today, there's no reason why they wouldn't or couldn't be black.

He should stay white. I have read a lot of the original Bond by Ian Fleming and a lot of Bonds character is based around being a archetypical english gentlemen i.e his racism. I think that characters should be as they are written and Bond was definately written as white. (not trying to be racist.)

Typhusoid:
He should stay white. I have read a lot of the original Bond by Ian Fleming and a lot of Bonds character is based around being a archetypical english gentlemen i.e his racism. I think that characters should be as they are written and Bond was definately written as white. (not trying to be racist.)

Yeah, I gotta side with this. The Bond in the books is a glorified sexist sociopath. A badass one, but Flemings' vivid descriptions of shaken martinis and slam-f***ing are hard to ignore. You can't just swap him out with a black actor without running into a gigantic brick wall of social conventions, stigmas, and that Bond's ethnicity is part of what makes the character exist at all.

*edit*

Wait, what the Hell am I talking about. They DID make a black bond.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDyRdhSIqlo

Oh hell no. Why not have a crippled female asian bond then ? Cmon Q would give her wheelchair all sorts of shit. Her fake leg could be a rocket launcher!

Bond is a british white guy. You cant just change shit to be pc.
Be like making jesus black. -.-;;;

Btw blonde black guys look fucking ridiculous same with blonde asians. Then again so do bottle blonde white guys and dont even get me started on streaks.

i had enough of a problem that hes kind of a dirty blond. I will not watch further movies with a black muslim bond. That charachter can have his own movie.

I have to say that JANES BOND is about the worst charachter name I've ever heard of.

James bond is a mysogynistic charachter created by a mysogynistic writer for a mysogynistic audience. We dont have to make him black or a woman (or a black woman).

Is the designation James Bond a code name given to an agent of the British government?
Yes.
Is the 007 merely a level of "security clearance" granted to agents of the government?
Yes.
Are there Black citizens of the U.K.?
Yes.
Are there female alcoholics?
Yes.
Are there female misogynists?
Yes.
Are there female misogynists that are also lesbians?
Yes.
Why should there be no alcoholic Black female lesbian misogynist 007 agents with the VERY clever designation Janes Bond...wait Janes Bondage?

Because the audience for such a film would be limited in scope, the studios would not make any money if they made that film. Take all notions of "traditional, true to the original intent of the author" arguments and forget them, if there was real money to be made off of a Black alcoholic misogynistic lesbian action hero named Janes Bond, the studios would make that movie in a second.

Hell it probably would make good money as a porno . . .Janes Bondage Copyright 2008 Escapist User I.D. Jorik.

I swear if I see that porno made I am SUING! This forum is my witness of presentment of an intellectual property right deriving from the original property of Ian Fleming.

Edit: to clear up semantically related arguments (semantics are always the easiest arguments to make) I removed an (s) from agent and added British before government.

Jorik:
Is the designation James Bond a code name given to agents of the government?
Yes.

And our survey said? Eh-eh.

James Bond is ...

named after an American ornithologist, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide book Birds of the West Indies. Fleming, a keen birdwatcher, had a copy of Bond's field guide at Goldeneye. Of the name, Fleming once said in a Reader's Digest interview, "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, 'James Bond' was much better than something more interesting, like 'Peregrine Carruthers.' Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure - an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department."

A Black Bond would be like a White Shaft or a Chinese Miss Marple or an English Scheherazade. Simply destroying the basis of the character for a cheap racial ratings boost.
However, I've no problem with Jamelia Bond or a mexican Jesus Bond.

But they won't be 'Bond'.

Are you actually implying that James Bond is the characters REAL name? Of course it should be bland and not memorable, its a COVER name, he is a SECRET agent . . . I mean seriously . . . Hi I'm James Bond, look me up in the pages. . . really? If his cover name was Excelsior Caesar people would remember him, but the whole choice of a common sounding IDENTITY is what makes . . . Bond, James Bond sound so cool, yet so forgettable.

The name James Bond IS NOT his real name, he might have chosen his cover name, but really aren't secret identities usually assigned by the agency?

Jorik:
Are you actually implying that James Bond is the characters REAL name?

I'm not. Ian Fleming is.

The real problem lies with the movie world, and not the written world. The actor portraying Bond in the movies has changed so many times, and so much (due to real world things, like the passage of time and prevailing cultural changes) that the association of the designation Bond is no longer attached to an individual, but more of a collective identity of many different british secret agents. The books, as far as I have read, maintain that James Bond is the same person through out the whole series. So, in literature, the idea of a non white British Agent 007 identified as James Bond is silly. However, the movies are an entirely different creature.

Please quote to me where Ian Fleming says that James Bond is the characters REAL name, and not a code name? He says he chose the dullest sounding name he could think of, but he still maintained that James Bond was a SECRET agent. Secret Agents need cover identities, lest they not be secret anymore.

Jorik:
Is the designation James Bond a code name given to agents of the government?
Yes.

It's not.

The James Bond movies just don't represent a single unified continuity.

It's kinda like there are several takes on the same comic book character sometimes, you know?

-- Alex

Quinn Davis:
I did some soul searching last night, and watched Casino Royale again. And I realized my opinion.

British crackers need James Bond. Black people already have a pile of cool, smooth and suave action heroes (See Carl Weathers and Billy Dee Williams).

Without Bond, British whiteys would have... Sherlock Holmes... That's it. Let's let the Cracker Brits have one poster boy for why they AREN'T a bunch of whiny ponces.
It's unfair that black guys are always the cool guys, even if they usually die first.

Soon you British Crackers will have the Robert Downey Jr. version of Holmes though, and that movie might be awesome.

Jorik:
Please quote to me where Ian Fleming says that James Bond is the characters REAL name, and not a code name? He says he chose the dullest sounding name he could think of, but he still maintained that James Bond was a SECRET agent. Secret Agents need cover identities, lest they not be secret anymore.

Not dreadfully secret if he uses the same identity on 20+ different cases though. The hint is in your above statement 'implied', but if you're looking for proof...

On Her Majesty's Secret Service:

- (man) Your Royal Highnesses, ...

...my lords, ladies and gentlemen, ...

...the toast is the bride and bridegroom, ...

...Mr and Mrs James Bond.

(all toast) Mr and Mrs James Bond!

Jorik:
Are you actually implying that James Bond is the characters REAL name?...

...The name James Bond IS NOT his real name, he might have chosen his cover name, but really aren't secret identities usually assigned by the agency?

Yes it is his real name. It's a made up character, so they can get away with bandying his real name about. In a few of the films he uses other cover names but bad-guys tend to see through that anyway, or he just straight up reveals himself. Come on, it's fiction, Don't get your knickers in a twist for the sake of trying to be clever.

In terms of a black bond...

zhoomout:
Maybe the question should be "Would you mind if there was a black bond" rather than "should there be a black bond"? Just a thought.

I think this is spot on. Would anyone mind? Not amongst any reasonable people, no. Ultimately, people care more about the strength of the films/book/fictional representation (Bond survived the Dalton incarnations, for chrissakes). I don't think people would see the point in the change, but we wouldn't mind.

Should there be a black bond? I would say no. There's no need to change what works as it is to satisfy the PC brigade. Like root_of_all_evil said above about fannying about with the origins of the other notable characters, the essence of the James Bond character is that he's a white, british, womanizing, secret agent.

If it ain't broke...