Taking us back to the beginning of his career, Casino Royale reconfigures Bond as fallible, vulnerable, and psychologically unstable, a man struggling to secure his identity as 007.
This article argues that Casino Royale (Campbell, 2006) and Quantum of Solace (Forster, 2008) – the fifth and sixth films starring Dench as M and the first two starring Daniel Craig as Bond – effect the most significant revision of gender roles in the franchise to date. The casting of Judi Dench in Goldeneye (Campbell, 1995), however, signalled the series’ potential to interrogate its own sexism. The James Bond film franchise has attracted much criticism for its depiction of women.
