I do not want to hijack this thread but weren’t there more than one Robin? As in, different people (not just actors but Robin was a different person…Nightwing???..I admit I am lost at how that all worked out)?
I was going to point this out.
There have actually been several examples of this, where a different person takes up the mantle of the superhero, after the original dies or retires. Robin is one such character, Captain America is another. Hell, there was a whole streaming series about just that - replacing the old Captain America. The CW show Green Arrow has had several people at least temporarily playing the role of “Green Arrow” just within the normal run of the show.
So, no, we wouldn’t get a new “Bruce Wanye”, but we could get a new “Batman”.
It even happened with Batman himself, temporarily. Remember the “Knightfall” storyline?
I personally think James Bond is a Time Lord. You don’t question the fact that Doctor Who has had a variety of faces over the years, do you?
I think the moviemakers are being remiss in failing to show Bond’s regeneration.
I see the Craig movies as their own separate continuity, like the Nolanverse Batman films.
So: Dr. No through Die Another Day, same guy on Comic Book Time. Casino Royale through No Time To Die, separate timeline/continuity/parallel universe.
And when James Bond, as promised, returns, I’m guessing it’s going to be a reboot.
I agree that this would be kind of cool. The idea that “James Bond” is a code name or alias appeals to me, because it emphasizes the notion of a lone-wolf spy who left his previous identity behind when he joined the agency.
I don’t think it’s ever going to happen, though. One problem is the presence of continuing characters; it would be quite a stretch to say that “Miss Moneypenny” and “Felix Leiter” are also aliases. There’s also the backstory supplied in the Craig movies, which suggests that Bond was always Bond.
Yes, I agree that this is probably the correct view. If the owners of the Bond IP ever explain it (and I doubt that they ever will), this is approximately what they’d say.
This reference may be lost on non-Brits, and even some younger Brits.
Premium Bonds are a British lottery, with a twist. The difference is, you can buy a bond, and your number gets entered into every monthly draw forever. You can win prizes from £25 to £1Million. You can cash out your bond at any time. If you don’t win a prize, you don’t even lose your money. All you lose is the interest your money generates. They aren’t as well known or as popular as they once were.
Oh, and Bond is definitely one person.
Well, then he moves pretty spryly in NTTD for a 90 year old man. Maybe they should have called it Too Old To Die.
He’s been a double naught spy almost as long as Elizabeth has had her present position with the British government. They should hang out, compare experiences.
Maybe they should do a WWII-era prequel, with a guy who looks kind of like Sean Connery getting a life-extending dose of healing elixir from the Holy Grail.
I think that’s pretty obviously true, almost beyond reasonable dispute. I would say, though, that I think the Dr. No through Die Another Day movies are only in a very loose continuity with each other, even by Comic Book Time standards.
HA! I can see it. It SINGS!
“I’m going to work on His Majesty’s Secret Service.”
Ultimately, questions like this are unanswerable and meaningless. All you can do is look at the context of the story. Sometimes they might suggest that it’s all one person; sometimes they might suggest that there are multiple people.
The novels, for example, are generally read to suggest that James Bond is just one person throughout the stories.
Ambiguity is inherent to fiction. As I have said before, a work of fiction is not a fake documentary. Storytelling is not about trying to tell you a set of consistent facts about a world that doesn’t exist.
The trope is called the Floating Timeline, or Sliding Timescale.
In the earliest novels, Bond is in his mid 40s, and on the verge of mandatory retirement. In the later novels, retirement is not mentioned, and he engages in more physically strenuous adventures.