From Sean Connery through Roger Moore, the age of the Bond actors was more or less linear. George Lazenby was younger, but not noticeably so. Roger Moore was older than Sean Connery and held onto the role for 12 years. Throughout these years, as Bond physically aged, his continuity was also acknowledged, in his mourning of his wife and battling of Blofeld. The twenty-fifth anniversary film, The Living Daylights, with a Bond who was remarkably younger in appearance (as well as different in character) made us consider: Is this the same Bond as before? Nevertheless, Timothy Dalton's next film, Licence to Kill, established that indeed it was. With the advent of a new Bond, Pierce Brosnan, six years later yet still the same age, we were forced to ask the same question, yet references to him as a "dinosaur" and "relic of the Cold War", along with the items in Q's laboratory in Die Another Day, seemed to reaffirm that this Bond was one and the same. If this Bond, with all of his experiences, had retained Sean Connery's birthdate, he would have been 72 years old.
In 2006 came Casino Royale, with a brand new Bond getting a brand new "origin" story. His birthdate is given as 1968, and so far, with two films taking place in quick succession, references to the previous films have obviously been nonexistant. Few would deny that this new Bond has not had the experiences of his predecessor(s).
My questions are: Before CR, how did you view Bond's age? Did you view him under Dalton and Brosnan as having the experiences of their predecessors in a more compressed, age-appropriate span of time? Or did you view Bond as 72 years old with extremely good genes/skin cream/plastic surgery in DAD?
Perhaps more importantly, how do you view him after CR? Is it a brand new character, reincarnated? Do you consider the previous Bond, of Dr. No - DAD, to have had Bond's CR experience (this may depend on how much you considered Fleming's Bond and the films to be one and the same)? Do you consider them to have had Bond's Quantum of Solace experience? Will you go into Skyfall thinking that this Bond has the experiences of his predecessor(s)?
And finally, if you do consider CraigBond a brand new character, as the majority undoubtedly does, do you think the character suffers from this loss of continuity? I must admit, I enjoyed the previous films knowing that Bond had survived all his past experiences.
I leave it open to you.
Edited by AndrewBond, 11 August 2012 - 09:29 PM.