6 Ways James Bond Could Change For The Modern World
2. Drop Or Severely Re-Think Comedy Characters
Not all of Bond's humorous sideline characters have been bad. Take Robbie Coltrane's Valentin Zhukovsky, first seen in Goldeneye and once again in The World is Not Enough, as a prime example of one of the better ones. Others have been horrendously politically-incorrect by today's standards, and make of that what you will.
Mercifully, the franchise did a good job of ditching cultural stereotypes a fair few decades back, but comic relief still exists in other unwelcome places. The most primary and recent example is Ben Whishaw's 'Q', who debuted as a very substantial, intelligent and mildly brooding alternative to Desmond Llewelyn in 2012's Skyfall.
Yet in the same swift maneuver, these admirable traits were decimated and replaced with cheap clumsiness with 2015's Spectre. It was inconsistent, and a horrendous step backward.
Are characters forbidden to be funny? Of course they aren't. But there needs to be some depth and clarity with it, or the cheapness will override, and inevitably soil any good intentions a future Bond film may have lined up.