What Would The Reaction To A Female Bond (007, that is) Be?

[Tsun Tzu]

Now I have no doubt they could have a female Bond pulling off all the sneaky-sneaky infiltration/espionage/sabotage stuff...but what about that other aspect of Bond? The fact that he ends up fucking pretty much every woman he meets? How well would that be received if Bond was gender-flipped? What would the reaction be to a female agent jet-setting around the world and bumpin' uglies with every handsome man she comes across?

We knew the world would not be the same.

A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.

 

[Zetatrain]

It would be interesting. The reaction would be luke warm.

Lukewarm?

Considering how the fanbase reacted when Daniel Craig was cast as 007, I think lukewarm is far from the reaction I'd expect.
More likely the fanbase would go apeshit and burn United Artists to the ground.

 

[Erttheking]

Depends on the execution. I'd like to see a swauve lass being charming and fucking a neverending swarm of handsome gents. But while there's no such thing as a bad idea, there are a lot of bad executions.

That and it could be the most misogynistic thing in the world with how badly it botches the idea, and some people would still call it PC gone mad.

 

[Shinkicker444]

I'd have to go watch it again but wasn't the female character (Lancelot?) in the Kingsmen a pretty good example of a potential James Bond-esque female spy? TBH, I don't know what I'd think about the idea until I actually saw it. ATM, I think it would be a terrible idea because Bond is such a set iconic character as he is that changing anything major is tantamount to "HERESY!" I think I'd rather see something new, but considering Hollywood's track record my faith in any good representation (of a female Bond-eque character) is... pretty low - with the lack of backstory and world to build on her too people would be kind of leery to watch I guess as well. Someone mentioned Joanna Dark before, have to say what I vaguely remember about that game was pretty awesome - dunno how that would translate to the big screen though (although offhand, mentally superimposing Scarlet Johansen, seems to fit). I'd love to see that laptop gun make an appearance though... god that thing was brilliant and trollish.

 

[Guffe]

I think the reaction with most noice would be the same sort that reacted to Torch (that's his name? The "Flame-ON" on guy from Fantastic4?) being black. Then a good deal of people would be thinking "this might be interesting" and wait for the movie to come out, go see it, and then decide if it did matter.
I mean Bond is just another spy-movie (often) so what difference the genderswap would really have I don't see. Maybe someone with more IQ could tell me that...

 

[The Purple Grape]

Are we so creatively bankrupt these days across all entertainment mediums to resort to Rule 63?

 

[The Harkinator]

These always sound like decent ideas on paper, but I'm not really for it in practice. If they just have a female Bond and that's the only difference, no change of character or personality traits then it's just been done for the sake of it, which is never a good reason to change something. But if they made Bond a woman and did change personality traits about the character then it's not really Bond, and In my opinion they'd have been better off creating an original character.

Thing is, whether you change the character or not, they're going to have to appear in a film at some point or other. If the character works and the film is awesome then it won't need to call itself James Bond to get by. If it doesn't it'll likely make money, but be using the brand as a crutch for an idea that's not working.

A character that may have more success with this sort of thing is The Doctor, his character and personality traits drastically change with each regeneration. The surviving characteristics can be applicable to many protagonists. While the Doctor does display some clearly male personality traits, he's more malleable to this sort of thing. It's literally part of his character that he can change his body, and they threw in that Timelords can change gender when they regenerate. Once again though, I'd rather see a new character created instead of changing an existing one. Entertainment is quite reliant on a few big names and franchises at the moment, and I'd like to see new stuff be tried.

 

[Estarc]

A female James Bond would be retarded, if they used her as such. Another female 00 agent within that universe would be a cool spin-off though. As to whether she should be a massive slut? Eh, I can't say I'm that fond of James Bond's character in the first place personally. But there's nothing really wrong with the femme fatale kind of character. And female promiscuity is not automatically worse than male promiscuity. I just don't think it is particularly desirable in either case.

 

[Buckets]

James Bond as a character is James Bond, a female wouldn't work.
That is to say if they did a spin-off involving another MI5 agent who was a woman then it'll be fine and dandy. Gender switching the actual James Bond character would be pointless and it would just end up being another fucked up franchise.

The all female Ghostbusters reboot will be OK as the Ghostbusters name doesn't have any gender requirements, I do hope that the surviving originals get a cameo though.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

Would be interesting. Though I think it would be a weak plot to simply genderbend Bond himself. Better make the film about a different character in the same universe then imo.

 

[Mechamorph]

If they had a female James Bond sleeping with every beautiful woman she comes across, I would bet that there would be quite a few people who would watch it just for that aspect alone.

Seriously though, some people (this being the Internet) would call her a ripoff of Black Widow. Others would find her pointless as James Bond himself is an anachronism. Still I personally would like to see a suave, sexy female Bond who makes it look easy with her wits, gadgets and charm as opposed to the more visceral Daniel Craig version and Jason Bourne's ruthless efficiency. Make it believable that she's an espionage agent engaged in the Great Game instead of a highly skilled thug.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Sure I'm in, especially if they keep the character completely intact, that'd be cool. "Bond" is a codename anyway.

But I still want to see Idris Elba more because GOD. DAMN. that man is just all kinds of "Unf." for that role.

The reaction it'd have though? An explosion of MRA rage.

I think it would probably make it a little more interesting for me personally, as I've never gotten into Bond films. I just find them too unintentionally funny. James Bond is just... such a Mary Sue and it's just silly to me.

It's funny when you think about when Mary Sue means, an author insert so that the author can live out his awesome fantasies, and then you remember Ian Fleming was actually a spy and probably did more awesome shit than his character did and you're just like "Oh. Huh." Somehow that's extremely amusing and humorous to me.

Do remember by the way, the cheese factor is totally intentionally funny. I'm always cackling during the older Bond movies, God that shit is hilariously dumb. And the puns man, the puns. It helps if you don't even remotely take Bond movies seriously.

 

[CrystalShadow]

About the same as a gender swapped Indiana Jones, I'd think... Poorly.

Gender-swapped Indiana Jones? What, you mean like...
Lara Croft?

That's not even a joke or random comparison or anything. Go find some really old interviews.
You'll see that Lara Croft was a James Bond clone, and originally male.
This was right after the 2d to 3d transition though, and they couldn't get their character designers to avoid over-the-top physiques. (nessesary for a sprite, if you want to be clear about the gender of a character made up of a few pixels)
They kept designing male characters who looked like Arnie, which they didn't want.
So they designed Lara.

But she's basically Female Indiana Jones, as far as the idea behind it.

James Bond is a male power fantasy; He's handsome, looks good in a suit, flirts with danger, interacts with high society, can shoot people whenever he wants without repercussions, has access to cool high tech toys, stops the bad guy, saves the world, and gets with a new hot girl in every adventure.

I honestly don't know how much of this women are into, if gender swapped. And guys generally wanna watch James Bond because they can then envision themselves being awesome and getting laid through male James' eyes.

... As for James bond, we had Halle Berry's character.
Who really was basically just the female James Bond in all but name.
Even to the point where she was technically the one that used Bond for sex... >_>

Anyway, I agree with the general sentiment that it'd probably be a bad idea to make an actual female james bond.
But it's pretty obvious the character is one that can work, because there's examples of it, and nobody seemed overly put out by it, generally.

 

[Politrukk]

The name's Bond...Jane Bond.

A question that popped up into my mind while at work today (I do criminal background searches for hiring purposes) as I came across a lady who had the last name of Bond was "Hmmm...I wonder what the reaction would be if Bond was gender-swapped."

Now I have no doubt they could have a female Bond pulling off all the sneaky-sneaky infiltration/espionage/sabotage stuff...but what about that other aspect of Bond? The fact that he ends up fucking pretty much every woman he meets? How well would that be received if Bond was gender-flipped? What would the reaction be to a female agent jet-setting around the world and bumpin' uglies with every handsome man she comes across?

The character is male, there is no reason to gender swap her, this will lead to an outrage by fans.

Said outrage will be perceived as social injustice and we'll end up with some stinking pile of Social Justice approved Bond movies.



James Bond is a very specific kind of character, compare him to say Harvey Spectre(Suits).
All the Alfa's want to be him, all the ladies want to be with him (even though I can't see what's attractive about him looks-wise).


A female Bond, wouldn't be Bond.

That's because the bloody character is JAMES BOND, see the James part in that?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well, I have the feeling that if you made a female Bond who acts like James Bond, a big load of feminists (the extreme kind) might roll up and call her a slut because of all the sexual encounters Bond goes through throughout his movies.

A much, much bigger load of people who aren't feminists would be doing this as well, though. Not sure why you'd single the feminists out.

how about we leave existing characters the fuck alone and come up with something original?

you know, something new.

you remember what new is right?

No. I don't think we do. A new version of something old, a reboot of a reboot of a reboot is all we can hope for. You just know they'll make another Fantastic Four reboot in a few years, and it'll probably suck.

Though, you are allowed to still make books into movies, and the books can be new.

 

[FalloutJack]

Snip

Well, unless you can gimme an idea about what other people would, I don't follow you. They'd be the loudest complaint, I'm sure.

 

[QuicklyAcross]

There would be people who liked the idea.
There would be people who did not like the idea.
There would be people who liked the fact that other people did not like the idea.
There would be people who did not like the fact that other people liked the idea.

I think this would cover the majority reactions to changing James Bond into a female lead instead.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Snip

Well, unless you can gimme an idea about what other people would, I don't follow you. They'd be the loudest complaint, I'm sure.

Going to disagree with you there. In my experience, it's almost always not feminists slutshaming people.

Not to say that feminists don't slutshame, but they get drowned out by people who aren't.