So, full disclosure, I'm a James Bond FANBOY. Like, autistic obsession level fanboyism here. Maybe not as much now, but when I was a teenager, I had to watch every single movie, and know every single thing about the franchise. I would buy those big 40th anniversary DVD collections back around 2002-2004ish after Die Another Day came out and watch the movies obsessively. I've seen all of the official Bond movies no less than 3-5 times (seeing some of the Craig ones a bit less but still watching them quite a bit), with the older ones seen well over 10-20 times each. So yeah, fanboy. Strong opinions here. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
So, with Daniel Craig finishing up his last film, and with that going to theaters soon, there's a lot of buzz surrounding who the next James Bond should be. And a name that has been floated around regularly is Idris Elba, a black guy. Uh...why? I've also heard people saying maybe the next James Bond should be a woman. Uh...seriously? What the actual fudge?
It's SJWism. SJWism seems to treat franchises like James Bond as like a glass ceiling. Like James Bond breaking the color or gender or sexuality barrier is some sort of political accomplishment that tells young people of those various characteristics that they can do anything. It just turns into this stupid political correctness circlejerk, and it's like ugh.
Meanwhile, us Bond fanboys, tend to be far more straight laced. We don't want a black dude as bond, or a woman, or whatever. It's stupid. I mean, James Bond is an established character, he's a white dude. He's always been played by a white dude. He should always be played by a white dude. To be honest, I remember how controversial Daniel Craig was in the first place, and let's go back to the mid 2000s real quick to discuss how things were within the fandom back then.
Honestly, replacing Brosnan was a very controversial move. Most of us LIKED Brosnan. Sure some "old timers" acted like he was a pretty boy who couldn't fight his way out of a paper bag, but most people through Brosnan was a good Bond. And being introduced to the series with Goldeneye, along with many other people in my age group, we kinda saw Brosnan the way older generations saw Connery. Like this dude WAS James Bond to us. We didn't want him gone. We were wondering, as we got into 2005-2006, why it was taking so long to make another movie after Die Another Day and why the series was taking so long to put something out. The only time we had a glut like this was between 1989 and 1995 between Dalton's lukewarm takes and Brosnan's debut. What was up? And it seemed like Brosnan was willing to continue at the time, so what gives?
And then let's not forget how people lost their crap over James Bond being BLONDE. Like, all of the actors up to this point had dark hair. Moore's was a bit more brown but generally Bond had dark brown to black hair. All of the actors minus Moore had this color. And now we were making some BLONDE dude James Bond? Really, most fanboys at the time didn't want Craig. We wondered what the producers were doing at the time.
But, then Casino Royale came out, and while Craig's performance was rough around the edges, they essentially rebooted the series. And those flaws were justifiable. Honestly, Craig, under normal circumstances, wouldn't be a great Bond actor. He lacked the sophistication Bond normally has. But, again, they kinda rebooted the series and made Bond a new 00 agent with the story arc being a story of how he became that guy, so these changes could be overlooked. And Craig's Bond has grown through the years, learning the lessons he needed to make him the character we enjoyed in previous outings.
That's all well and good. I mean, I kind of have to say, in retrospect, it wasn't the end of the world. They actually did take the series in a successful direction rebooting it and making it grittier and more down to earth, and I have to say that it worked. But seriously, given the amount of criticism that even Craig got, and how he basically had to earn his way to achieving parity with the other Bond actors in the eyes of the community, why the heck would we want to push a black or female James Bond in order to push some weird politically correct thing of achieving the first of something or something.
Seriously, our fandoms are not your glass ceiling. Cut that crap out. This is basically what would be, if the shoe was on the other foot, cultural appropriation.
This isn't to say that i have anything against black people or secret agents starring in their own movies. I'm not even against MI6 in the Bond universe having black or female agents who are not casted as 007 or James Bond. Seriously have fun. But when you wanna change an established fandom's canon in order to shove a politically correct agenda down everyone's throats, yeah, that's a problem.
I feel like this is one of the reason nerds end up becoming socially conservative. We saw it with Gamergate, and the ghostbusters reboot, and Battlefield 5, you always have these SJWs trying to push agendas in peoples' fandoms, and then the fandoms getting pissed off. And then the SJWs getting self righteous and portraying us as sexist misogynistic dinosaurs (to make a Goldeneye reference) for not wanting change, when their change sucks, etc.
Seriously, I wish SJWs would stay out of media and stop trying to force their ideals in peoples' fandoms. It's really stupid and annoying. Make your own crap. If it's entertaining I'll watch and play it. Just keep your crap out of old franchises. Even if they have dated standards like James Bond, mmkay? Not everything has to conform to 2021 far left social standards, ya know? These guys liken themselves as the new moral police and it kinda pisses me off after a while.
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