Will moviegoers bond with the new 007?

Of this, we can be fairly certain. The next James Bond will look good in a tuxedo. He will drive an Aston Martin (except when compelled by commercial considerations to drive something else). And at some point, he will utter the words “shaken, not stirred” with dashing aplomb.But who will he be?Not who the actor will be, though rumors are circling about Callum Turner, as well as Jack Lowden and Josh O’Connor. (More on them later.) No, rather, will the next Bond be the brooding, inwardly tortured creature of Daniel Craig’s creation – a man struggling for relevance and humanity among the darkening forces of a modern world? Or will he be a campy throwback a la Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan – the spy who loved so many and was never outwitted by word, weapon, or wager?What is the Bond the world needs now?With the series about to be relaunched, the world will soon get an answer. Rebirth, after all, is in the series’ DNA. But this round, in particular, has raised questions even M might have a difficult time answering. Some say the next Bond should be Black, Asian, or perhaps a woman. Others suggest returning him to his native environment, the machismo-drenched Cold War era of the 1950s and ’60s. Given that the latest installment in the franchise ended with the unfathomable – Bond’s death – perhaps the time is ripe for “young Bond” origin stories. Little is known about the return of the franchise other than that the next movie will be directed by Denis Villeneuve, the Canadian director of “Arrival” and the “Dune” series. Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP/FileActor Daniel Craig appears at the world premiere of "No Time To Die" in London, Sept. 28, 2021. Mr. Craig played the British superspy in five films. Bond experts (yes, they’re a thing) are loath to predict what might come next. But they agree Bond is timeless precisely because he is so human. Amid the swirling change of technology, politics, and global turmoil, he is like a typewriter or a vinyl record – flawed perhaps, but sturdy, dependable, and time-tested. “James Bond was an analog character,” says John Cork, executive director of the Ian Fleming Foundation. “He needs to look someone in the eye. With the advent of AI, we need the same: the ability to judge what is real and what is fake.”This is Bond’s real value. Sure, he is the Epicurean elitist who can disarm villains with the perfection of his dinner order. But he is also a one-man revolt against the dehumanizing forces of the future, whether that is a nuclear bomb or the increasingly insidious face of espionage – such as drone strikes or cyberwarfare.“We live in a society, increasingly, where you can feel the individual doesn’t really matter,” says Oliver Buckton, chair of the English department at Florida Atlantic University and an expert on spy fiction. Bond is “the attraction of the individual who can make a difference.”The question is whether he does that with a grimace or a wink. The Bond franchise has always gone in cycles. The lighthearted Mr. Moore followed the iconic Sean Connery. The seriousness of Timothy Dalton gave way to the effervescence of Mr. Brosnan. By that logic, the next Bond should be a bit more whimsical and humorous, following the intensity of Mr. Craig.But would that play in the current global mood? “They need a balance,” says Dr. Buckton. “I don’t think they can just continue with the more gritty, traumatized Bond of Daniel Craig, but I don’t think they should return to the lighter, kind of campy escapists of Roger Moore or even Pierce Brosnan.” AP/FileScottish actor Sean Connery portrayed the iconic James Bond in seven films beginning with "Dr. No" in 1962. His last Bond film, "Never Say Never Again," was released in 1983. One option is to go back to the source material. James Bond emerged from the books of Ian Fleming, whose globe-trotting secret agent battled improbably named nemeses such as Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Auric Goldfinger. Though those books were set in a clear historical period – the height of the Cold War – Bond was never about his surroundings. The core of Bond, says Mr. Cork, comes from a line Mr. Fleming wrote in the series’ seventh novel: “Goldfinger could not have known that high tension was Bond’s natural way of life and that pressure and danger relaxed him.”Bond’s greatest enemy, Mr. Cork says, is boredom.“You can’t let Bond wallow too much in anger or confusion, because that’s not Bond,” he says. “He’s more likely to give a bon mot at that moment.”One British tabloid newspaper claims that actor Josh O’Connor (“Disclosure Day”) is the front-runner for the role. Yet it’s Mr. Turner who is hotly tipped to serve on His Majesty’s Secret Service. If he gets chosen, it could signal a return to Fleming’s vision. He even looks like Fleming’s physical model for Bond – American musician Hoagy Carmichael, whose hits included “Georgia on My Mind” and “Stardust” among others. Deepen your worldviewwith Monitor Highlights.Politics with respectGet political stories with respectful analysis.There‘s a world of new ideas in everyBooks newsletter.There‘s more to life, enrich yours withCulture & Learning weekly.Follow humanity‘s discoveries withScience & Nature stories in your inbox.Gain a spiritual perspectivefrom the stories in your inbox.Want to understand the deeper impact of critical events? Learn the Monitor‘s insight.Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads. “He’s not a pretty boy,” says Ian Kinane, editor of the International Journal of James Bond Studies. “There’s something hardened about him” that evokes the way Mr. Connery was able to blend elements of suave and steel into the character.And as for the idea of a genuinely new Bond – who is neither white nor male? “In the end, I think they just need to block out the noise and make the best Bond they can,” whatever that is, says Mr. Kinane. ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? LoginReal news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.The Christian Science Monitor was founded in 1908 to lift the standard of journalism and uplift humanity. We aim to “speak the truth in love.” Our goal is not to tell you what to think, but to give you the essential knowledge and understanding to come to your own intelligent conclusions. Join us in this mission by subscribing.