British writer Kim Sherwood, the first woman to be commissioned to make a new trilogy about agent 007, believes that "James Bond can evolve and adapt to changing times, even though he is an iconic and popular character that everyone knows" .
The author intends to give a significant twist and according to these times to the character created by Ian Fleming.
She spoke of "socializing" the main roles of the series.
This means that the new Bond will have a "more choral" role, divided into three "more inclusive and multicultural" heroes.
They are:
Johanna Harwood, agent 003, of Franco-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
.
Daniel Craig, the last James Bond, in "No time to die".
They all enter the scene after the disappearance of 007, who is only evoked 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 well-known spy series, her purpose was "to honor Fleming and see where his style and mine shared DNA and give a fresher vision".
The 34-year-old writer believes that "the context is the key, because Fleming was speaking from the 1950s, when the great danger for the West was communism," while she does so from contemporary times, but "it has been shown that Bond As a symbol of Great Britain it is liable to evolve; Pierce Brosnan's has nothing to do with
Sean Connery
's ."
The British Ian Fleming had a hectic life that, they say, reflected in his James Bond novels.
In
Double or Nothing
, the first novel in Sherwood's trilogy, Bond is missing after being threatened by vengeful forces in a world torn between climate collapse and the geopolitical upheavals of the 21st century.
If Bond had always moved in a context dominated by men and with large doses of sexism, in this installment, in addition to a new agent, Sherwood gives a "promotion" to the eternal Miss Moneypenny, who "is now the head of the section Double 0".
She wanted "a heroic female character" because when she was a girl playing the game, "I always wanted to be 007, I wanted to rescue, not be rescued," she says.
Sherwood's Inspiration
Apart from the instructions of the Fleming family, who wanted to incorporate a new cast of agents, the author was inspired by the British MI6's own advertisements, which "look for people with different backgrounds, who speak different languages and who do not necessarily have to be white nor educated at Eton".
The Bonds of the past.
AFP photos
The author acknowledges that when writing the saga "it is inevitable not to keep the films in mind, because Fleming
himself
was already very visual and influenced the film versions of his novels, and these in my style, with which the circle is closed".
The war in Ukraine, North Korea's missiles or China's balloons mark a current situation that, in his opinion, makes "the spy genre more attractive."
Sherwood thinks that there is no need to rewrite the Bond novels to adapt them to our times, because "if we rewrite history we run the risk of not learning from the past."
The new villain: climate change
There is no shortage of an antagonistic villain, in this case Sir Bertram Paradise, who claims he can reverse climate change through cloud seeding, "a character who emerged during lockdown" when he began writing this first novel, who "could well be one of today's tech billionaires.
The new Bond villain thinks he can reverse climate change.
To the author, the climate crisis seems "a terrible reality, which makes many people suffer while a minority benefits from it."
The action takes place in multiple settings, from the 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 I thought of
Daniel Craig
, I was also inspired by Sean Connery's panther gaits and for seduction the reference was Brosnan".
Wax figures of actors who were 007: Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Daniel Craig, Sean Connery, George Lazenby and Pierce Brosnan.
Photo Reuters
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's in the '90s, which was the complete opposite."
Sherwood does not give up his most personal books, and after his debut with
Testament
, inspired by the life of his grandparents, one of them a Holocaust survivor, he has just published
A wild and authentic relationship
, "historical novel about a woman dedicated to smuggling ".
Source: EFE Agency
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