British writer Kim Sherwood, the first woman to be commissioned to make a new 007 trilogy, believes that “James Bond can evolve and adapt to changing times, even if he’s an iconic and popular character that everyone knows.”
The author intends to give a significant and according to these times to the character created by Ian Fleming. He talked about “socializing” the lead roles in the series. This means that the new Bond will have a “more choral” role, divided into three “more inclusive and multicultural” heroes.
I am: Johanna Harwood, agent 003, of French-Algerian origin; Joseph Dryden, spy 004, of Jamaican origin, deaf in one ear and the first openly gay agent; and Sid Bashir, 009, who belongs to an ethnic minority.
They all enter the scene after the disappearance of 007, summoned only by his bosses and section mates.
Between honoring Fleming and his own vision
Sherwood, who hails from Camden, England, acknowledges that “Fleming’s shadow is long, because his character is so ingrained in popular culture” and, as a fan of the popular spy series, his aim was “to honor Fleming and see where his style and mine share DNA and give a fresher view.”
The 34-year-old writer believes that “context is key, because Fleming spoke from the 1950s, when the great danger to the West was communism”, while she does from contemporary times, but “it has been shown that Bond as a symbol of Britain evolves; that of Pierce Brosnan has nothing to do with that of Sean Conney“.
In Double or nothingThe first novel in the Sherwood trilogy, Bond disappeared after being threatened by vengeful forces in a world torn between climate collapse and 21st century geopolitical upheaval.
If Bond had always moved in a context dominated by men and with large doses of sexism, in this episode, in addition to a new agent, Sherwood gives a “promotion” to the eternal Miss Moneypenny, who “is now head of the Double Section 0”.
She wanted “a heroic female character” because when she was a girl playing games, “I always wanted to be 007, I wanted to save, not be saved,” she says.
Sherwood’s inspiration
Apart from the indications of the Fleming family, who wanted to incorporate a new cast of agents, the author was inspired by the same announcements of the British MI6, which “are looking for people with different backgrounds, who speak different languages and who don’t necessarily have to be white nor educated at Eton”.
The author acknowledges that when writing the saga “it is inevitable not to keep the films in mind, because all the same Flemish It was already very visual and influenced the film versions of his novels, and these in my style, with which it comes full circle.”
The war in Ukraine, North Korea’s missiles or China’s balloons mark a current situation which, in his opinion, makes “the espionage genre more attractive”.
Sherwood thinks there is no need to rewrite the Bond novels to fit our times, because “if we rewrite history we run the risk of not learning from the past”.
The new villain: climate change
There is also a villain antagonist, in this case Sir Bertram Paradise, who claims he can reverse climate change through cloud seeding, “a character who emerged during the lockdown” when he started writing this first novel, which “could very well be one of the today’s tech billionaires.
To the author, the climate crisis seems “a terrible reality, which makes many people suffer while a minority benefits”.
The action takes place in multiple settings, from East to London, including the Spanish city of Barcelona.
The writer admits that the appearance of the Jason Bourne saga was “revolutionary” and had a decisive influence on the 007 series.
Sherwood’s Favorite Bonds
when he wrote Double or nothing he couldn’t help but put a face to his characters: “For the action scenes that I thought of Daniel CraigI was also inspired by Sean Connery’s panther-like gaits and for seduction the reference point was Brosnan”.
Writing a trilogy will allow you to “explore long character arcs,” but that can all change as the world evolves.
“Timothy Dalton’s Bond from the 80s, in the midst of the AIDS crisis, in which there were no sex scenes, was followed by Brosnan in the 90s, which was the complete opposite.”
Sherwood does not give up his more personal books, and after his debut with Willinspired by the life of his grandparents, one of whom survived the Holocaust, has just published in A wild and authentic relationship“historical novel about a woman dedicated to smuggling”.
Source: Clarin
