Who cares about James Bond?

It's said that the only films consistently capable of bringing parents, children, and grandchildren to the cinema are James Bond films. Or so they used to say when James Bond films were staples on the billboard. That tradition seemed to be in jeopardy after the 2021 release of No Time to Die , agent 007 's final adventure to date. Its agonizing release, postponed several times and affected like few others by the Covid crisis, didn't end in ruin: the film made money. But one left the theater with questions: Is it time to retire Bond? Does anyone care about this character, other than me? Have I caught Covid?

The ending of No Time to Die was, by the way, much more radical than a mere retirement. And Covid wasn't caught in theaters.

Resurrecting 007 is easier for a screenwriter than for a producer. The first step is to get started; the next step is to pay for it . This is the second step Amazon took when it took control of the rights to the character. We fans then clutched our heads at the thought of seeing the elegant and selective Bond mercilessly squeezed in the form of series, sequels, prequels, and whatever else. However, the first news we're hearing from there is, to say the least, encouraging: Denis Villeneuve is the chosen director for the next film about the secret agent .

Many Bond directors have worked in the film industry, but few have a universe as recognizable as Villeneuve's, a prestigious artist with recent financial success. The first of his two Dune films was released a few weeks before No Time to Die and, like the latter, was profitable in a year when movie theaters were still a place of masks and uncertainty. A few months earlier, with the health situation much more tense, Christopher Nolan insisted on releasing Tenet in theaters. It didn't work out, of course. Nor have the rumors placing Nolan at the helm of the new James Bond series on Amazon worked. But the jokes about an existentially depressed Bond that accompanied that rumor remain valid after the appointment of Villeneuve, another filmmaker of gloom.

Goodbye, I'm afraid, to the fun-loving, reckless, and somewhat frivolous 007 of my favorite films, the one who, by the time he was in his final years, played by Daniel Craig , was already in retirement. Craig's Bond was broken, traumatized by the loss of his great love, and as nostalgic for the old world as his more veteran viewers. A misogynistic and questionable world, yes, but also conscious of being fiction and entertainment. I wonder if Denis Villeneuve knows how, wants to, or can keep 007 relevant. I wonder if he'll risk a modernization that could be fatal to the saga . I wonder if anyone else but me is wondering this.