James Bond Reboot: New Stories, New Agents, and a New Q
James Bond is being dragged into the modern world, whether he likes it or not. In a bold move, Ian Fleming’s estate is gearing up for a major reboot, commissioning a new author to thrust 007 into an era where the old certainties have crumbled, and trusting his allies without hesitation are apparently over.
This reboot won’t just be confined to the bookshelves. Amazon MGM, having pried Bond from the iron grip of the Broccoli family with a cool $1 billion, is poised to unleash a wave of spin-offs, reboots, and—inevitably—controversy.
After all, Bond has always been a relic of a bygone age, and attempts to “modernize” him have often met with resistance. But with Amazon’s deep pockets and a newfound determination to reshape the Bond universe, this is no minor tinkering, but instead a seemingly full-scale reinvention.
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New Stories, New Spies, and a Q Like You’ve Never Seen Before
Fleming’s estate is going all in on expansion, launching an entire literary universe around MI6’s finest. One of the first offerings will be Quantum of Menace, a novel penned by crime writer Vaseem Khan.
The novel won’t be about Bond himself, but rather Q—yes, the gadget guru—who finds himself investigating the mysterious death of a computer scientist after being ousted from MI6.
And the reinvention doesn’t stop there. The estate has also given its blessing to adaptations of Kim Sherwood’s Double O novels, which introduce an array of fresh-faced agents filling the void left by a missing – and presumed dead – 007. Among them is Joanna Hardwood (003) and Joseph Dryden (004), “a gay black man,” while Q has been reimagined as an AI.
According to Jonny Geller, chief executive of Curtis Brown, which represents the Fleming estate, the floodgates are now open: “Our door is open to Amazon. We’ve got a lot of material, a lot of Bond intellectual property that’s written at the top level by top writers for 40 years.”
Translation: expect a Marvel-style Bond cinematic universe, complete with origin stories, spin-offs, and—who knows—perhaps even a woke Bond for the TikTok generation.
A New Bond for a New World Order
The upcoming novels won’t just be a modern take on Bond, but a direct response to today’s chaotic geopolitical landscape. MI6, once able to rely on the unwavering support of its allies, is now forced to navigate a treacherous new world where trust is a luxury.
America’s reliability is in question, with intelligence sharing on shaky ground, and the West’s old power structures no longer as solid as they once were – likely more due to Kier Starmer’s politics than Trump’s!
Geller teased what’s to come: “It’s interesting to look at the events of the last 40 days. The world is changing again. What we thought was true about international relations is now being questioned. What do the intelligence services do about this? What is intelligence? Who are your allies and who are your foes?”
The last Bond novel, With a Mind to Kill by Anthony Horowitz, was released in 2022, and now, with a new author set to be named, the next incarnation of Bond will be born into this volatile, uncertain era.
A New Film Bond for a New Owner
As for the films, Amazon now wields unprecedented power over Bond’s cinematic future. The Broccoli family may have held the reins for decades, but after Amazon’s £6.7 billion acquisition of MGM, the baton has been well and truly passed.
While speculation on Daniel Craig’s successor continues, Geller remains a key player in shaping Bond’s future, hinting that his agency’s client, Ncuti Gatwa, is very much in the mix. The Doctor Who actor hasn’t been mentioned in the latest betting, but hiring an unexpected and relatively unknown actor is typical of Bond producers, so who knows.
Will Bond’s essence survive this relentless modernizing? Or will he be repackaged, rebranded, and reimagined into something so far removed from Fleming’s original creation that he becomes just another soulless franchise product?
Perhaps the bigger question is: in a world where nothing is certain, is there still room for a hero like Bond?
