How to Celebrate James Bond Day As the Upcoming 007 Remains a Mystery?

This Sunday is Bond Day, if you weren't aware – 5 October has become a international festivity honoring everything about 007, thanks to the fact it commemorates the date of the global debut of Dr No, starring Sean Connery, during 1962. Think of it comparable to Star Wars Day, but with less furry aliens and much more sophisticated style.

A Low-Key Observance Currently

But on this occasion, the arrival of James Bond Day seems somewhat like a damp squib. Not long has passed since Denis Villeneuve was announced to direct the next Bond film earlier this year, and not long afterwards that the screenwriter Steven Knight was hired to write the script. But there’s been scant evidence from that point of the new 007 actually being revealed, and even less sense concerning the path this long-running series is going next. All we have are unconfirmed reports via the Hollywood trades indicating that the film-makers will be looking for a relatively youthful Brit, who might be a person of colour although not a female actor, a big-name celebrity, or anyone remotely familiar.

Bad News for Bookmakers

This is, of course disappointing news for the numerous gambling platforms that have earning significant profits over recent months by attempting to persuade bettors that it is a race among a shortlist of actors plus the charismatic star featured in Saltburn who’s secretly Australian.

Revisiting the Unknown

Interestingly, the last time the film series opted for an absolute newcomer occurred in 1969, when George Lazenby briefly took up the Walther PPK. Prior to that, the original Bond was not famous: he had taken a few minor film roles plus occasional stage and modelling work as well as working as a bodybuilder and milkman in Edinburgh prior to accepting the starring part in the first film. The film's producers intentionally rejected an established star; they sought someone fresh who the public would see as Bond himself, instead of a performer portraying Bond.

Repeating this trick could turn out to be a brilliant tactic, similar to how it worked back in the sixties.

The Villeneuve Factor

Yet hiring the director Denis Villeneuve means that there's no room for error whatsoever in case the future agent proves to be wooden. Increasing the exploding pens and innuendo is not feasible when your new director is an artistic director specializing in cinematic genres most famous for ponderous sci-fi epics where the dominant feature is the audience’s own existential dread.

A bruiser in a dinner jacket … Daniel Craig in 2006’s Casino Royale.

A New Direction for the Franchise

And yet, in numerous aspects, bringing in Villeneuve provides clear signals we should understand concerning the fresh era after Daniel Craig. It's unlikely there will be any invisible cars or sexual innuendos, and it's doubtful we'll see the southern lawman in the near future. This entire situation is, undoubtedly, perfectly acceptable if you like the secret agent updated for today. But it doesn’t tell us this new version of the elegant government hitman will distinguish itself against earlier agents from the recent past particularly should the new era doesn’t choose to set the narrative in the original time period.

Reinventing Each Era

Craig was instantly distinctive as a fresh version of dapper super-spy upon his debut in the franchise in Casino Royale from 2006, an aggressive figure in black tie who would avoid at all costs with ridiculous gadgets, or trading sex puns alongside Denise Richards while defusing a nuclear warhead. He caused Pierce Brosnan’s gadget-addled smoothie that just a short time before had been considered by some the top 007 after Connery, seem like a copycat version left too long in the microwave. This pattern is familiar. After Connery came Lazenby, Brosnan followed the overlooked Dalton, and cheesy late-era Roger Moore came after the intense early Moore. All franchise chapters alters the prior, but each one is distinctively the famous agent, deserving of a toast. It feels odd, during this year's this year’s Bond Day, that we are asked to celebrate an agent that is not yet chosen.