However, I think specifically in the case of James Bond, because is such an icon and total embodiment of society’s ideas of masculinity that I think it would be very interesting to see this character in particular made into a woman. It would be so counter to what Bond is that it would be a truly interesting thing to see and have a conversation about.
I get where you’re coming from here, but my argument is that when you alter one of a character’s most defining traits, you automatically create a new character. So by the very act of switching Bond’s sex, you end up with a character that’s Bond-in-name-only. Kinda like Godzilla '98.
The reaction to the most male oriented franchise being suddenly headlined by a woman would be a truly fascinating thing. It’s not about cheap gimmicks or anything like that.
Just to be “that guy” but it kinda does come off as a gimmick to get a reaction to sell tickets from my point of view, haha. You’re obviously genuine about exploring the character archetype in the female form, but I just think that it changes the character too much for it to remain Bond, and so to me it can only come off as selling a different candy in my favourite candy’s wrapper.
Besides, like you said, we can just look at Ghostbusters and know what the reaction would be, and they even have the benefit of being all-new characters. A larger franchise with the main focus on one character and his archetype would probably utterly self-destruct in a very ugly way with a change that polarizing.
I’m sure other established franchises (like Bond) are watching what’s going on with Ghostbusters right now and taking notes.
Honestly I’m getting kind of tired of crossovers. I’d rather Bond not be the nth franchise to try to be the MCU.
That one was mostly a joke, haha. And I agree, but you know how Hollywood and “universes” are now. Everything’s gotta be part of some kinda universe franchise now.
If they made a movie about Tombraider with a male Laura Croft I would imagine that that franchise’s fans would have an equally WTF reaction.
This is pretty much my point exactly. And they basically did make a male Lara Croft game, they just made it a new character and named him Nathan Drake. Just like Lara was kinda a female Indiana Jones (and with her reboot, the parallels are even moreso). Which is perfectly alright with me, nothing wrong with basing a character on an established character, but we can do better than just a gender swap.