Since opposing power in our modern times is futile, we must adapt to the demands it makes on us.  This is especially true of the long-running character in the fictional James Bond series.

"Oh, the things I do for England," Sean Connery once said in You Only Live Twice.

Long gone are the days of carefree innocence and naïveté, when we would watch a movie as a child or a teenager and think it wasn't propaganda.  It just reflected what human beings are.  Sadly, or perhaps wonderfully, as we grow up, our experiences change how we see the world.  Some of the old movies we watched in our youth still give us a thrill, but most of what we enjoyed back in the days of carefree innocence and naïveté seem dated and even a little bit silly.

The original James Bond movies, starring Sean Connery, are now seen as being wickedly toxic.  They ooze with what we now know is toxic masculinity.  Plus, the original James Bond was attracted only to women.  "Why can't he be more flexible with his sexuality?" a modern film critic might say superciliously.  "At least make him bisexual rather than boring and toxic hetero."

So James Bond must change if the series is to remain viable and salable in movie theaters.  It doesn't matter if James Bond, or the character of James Bond, or Ian Fleming's ghost doesn't like it; the times demand flexibility.  If the next James Bond actor says somewhat derisively while reading an updated script, "You want me to kiss Doctor No?!," that actor will never work again.

Soon most of the James Bond films, the older ones, will be edited for modernity without our even knowing it happened.  Eventually (though this won't happen for a while), they will be banned.

Of course, the James Bond series will always be action-packed with truly evil villains.  Yet the new James Bond will be kinder and gentler, more caring, and less violent.  The new Bond villain will be unspeakable evil: a climate change denier!  The new Bond villain will be named Doug J. Temple, who kidnaps Greta Thunberg and holds her hostage until his oil company is allowed to drill in the world's biggest bird sanctuary.  I'd go to see that movie!  The new, more enlightened James Bond would, in the climactic scene, rescue Greta and even extend a hand to the villain Doug J. Temple.  However, Doug would refuse to be saved as he sinks slowly in a vat of his own crude oil and drowns.

It is likely, though, that the new more enlightened, gay James Bond might already be passé.

So what's next in the evolving James Bond film series?

Transgender James Bond?  Naaa, the world isn't ready yet for a transgender James Bond.  This would push the envelope too far.  However, in a decade?

"Oh, the things I do for England."

Image: Stephen Craven.