The new 007 is a woman - jumping the shark moment confirmed.

[Makeshift Python]

It’s not so strange. It’s a sentiment Bond circles have starting to share since Craig’s run began. In fact in the advent of Die Another Day high camp approach there were already fans lamenting how the series didn’t continue what Dalton tried starting. I do wish he had gone to a third. In fact GoldenEye was originally written for him, which is why it had a darker tone than other Brosnan films.

[jadenova]

Interesting how there isn't a big deal being made about an African-American villain in the next James Bond film.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Interesting how there isn't a big deal being made about an African-American villain in the next James Bond film.

It's not exactly unprecedented or anything. Yaphet Kotta was the villain in Live and Let Die in 1973.

[Yukaphile]

I'm sure far right reactionaries who think blacks get special treatment would love that.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

How sure are you?

[Yukaphile]

Depends how far "right" they identify.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

[clearspira]

I think the hype I felt at the time for Tomorrow Never Dies had to do with the fact that the GoldenEye N64 game had come out just a few months before, so my friends and I were kind of primed to see the new flick. I wouldn't actually see a Bond movie in theaters until much later with Die Another Day.

For what it's worth, these are my top five Bond films ranked.

1) From Russia with Love (1963)
2) Goldfinger (1964)
3) Skyfall (2012)
4) On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
5) Casino Royale (2006)

A lot of the films below this kind of shift around a lot, except the bottom five, which have remained firm.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service?

Oh dear.

Well... someone has to like it I suppose.

[Makeshift Python]

Interesting how there isn't a big deal being made about an African-American villain in the next James Bond film.

It's not exactly unprecedented or anything. Yaphet Kotta was the villain in Live and Let Die in 1973.

The book is actually a lot more racially insensitive, or at least heavily dated in its portrayal of African-Americans, which was why despite being the second novel written, EON Productions wouldn't even touch until their eight film. It only got made because writer Tom Mankiewicz saw Blaxploitation films becoming big thing and pushed for it, so he wrote the African-American villains to be portrayed much more smarter and wittier, almost to the point it kinda made Bond look like a chump at times. Since the villains would be African-American, there were attempts by the filmmakers to try to offset accusations of racism and one of the ways of doing that was to introduce the character Sheriff J.W. Pepper, a total parody of a white southern racist authority figure who's pretty much made a joke throughout his appearance. I'm sure if this film came out today there would be extreme groups accusing this film of hating on white people.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service?

Oh dear.

Well... someone has to like it I suppose.

Nah, more than someone. It's reputation has gone up over the years that it's now considered one of the best Bond films. Had Sean Connery actually been the star of this instead of George Lazenby, it might have been regarded as the best Bond film made right from the get go.

[Darth Wedgius]

I haven't seen a Bond film in decades and I can't say I really care about this, but replacing a white straight male character with a diversity hire usually hasn't done well. The only success stories I can think of are Miles Morales and Jaime Reyes, though there might be others, and neither of those are really the tentpole in a big production.