Whether he is viewed as a strictly literary creation, or as the focus for a massively successful film franchise that currently encompasses 24 official movies, it is nearly impossible to doubt the enduring appeal of the fictional British secret agent, James Bond.

From his literary debut in 1953 in Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale the Bond brand, for want of a better term, has endured everything from multiple recastings the actor in the title role to the end of the Cold War. But while current Bond star Daniel Craig has recently confirmed that he will be returning as 007 for the the 25th film in the official Bond canon, the franchise faces a new quandary: What's the best way to deal with the biggest sociopolitical upheaval to effect Bond's homeland since the fall of the Berlin Wall?

On March 29, 2019 Britain, is due to leave the European Union. What exactly this move, dubbed Brexit in the UK's popular press, will mean for the people of Great Britain is still hotly contested, not least because negotiations on the terms of Britain's exit are still currently ongoing. Even the British Prime Minister Theresa May has been reduced to tautology when talking it, stating simply that "Brexit means Brexit" shortly after she came to office.

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In November 2019, some eight months after the Brexit deadline is due to pass, the 25th Bond movie will premiere in cinemas worldwide. With the exact terms of the final Brexit settlement still so uncertain, it seems highly unlikely that even returning Bond screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade could accurately forecast the impending political realities of a Post-Breit Britain in time for the premiere of what is still called Bond 25 -- but are there any clues among the existing Bond films and novels that might indicate how the franchise might deal with Brexit?

To begin with, we could examine Bond's origins as a wish-fulfilling fantasy vehicle for a former Naval Intelligence Officer turned journalist named Ian Fleming. At 44, Fleming was facing the seemingly inescapable conclusion that his days of deliciously self-centered thrill-seeking were rapidly drawing to a close. But although Fleming was preparing to finally settle down and marry his long-time lover Ann Charteris, his appetite for adventure remained undiminished.

Fleming's solution was to embark on a voyage of escapism through the creation of the ultimate wish-fulfilling literary avatar, a fictional British secret agent who, unlike Fleming himself, would be actively involved in the front line of espionage for crown and country. A Mary Sue of breathtaking audacity, Fleming's creation would never age, never be refused by any woman in matters of love or lust, and would certainly never be tied down by a wife or children. That Bond would also have access to a virtually unlimited budget to indulge Fleming's own taste for the finer things in life was merely the cherry on top of this imaginary cake.

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In many ways, Bond would seem to be the perfect embodiment of, not just Fleming's personal desires, but of how a significant number of Brexit supporters view themselves and their country. Alone in the field, Bond stands for the nation; a paragon of Britishness -- victorious against all comers -- who is nonetheless figure universally admired, envied and desired. In both the Bond books and films, the foes he faces are typically eccentric megalomaniacs, crippled by their bizarre need to assert their superiority over the world. They are also almost always not British, a xenophobic trait that is almost, but not quite, explained away by Bond's counter/espionage work.

However, as tempting view of Bond as an all-powerful flag-waving British nationalist hero may be, it should be noted that 007 seldom works entirely alone. He is almost always aided in his adventures by international allies, be they the talented, and increasingly independent, women he is narratively obliged to bed, various one-off foreign male contacts, who may or may not be alive by the time the closing credits roll, or by Felix Leiter, his American counterpart and constant comrade at the CIA.

Leiter's recurring and often pivotal role in supplying Bond with the intelligence and resources the country he serves is unwilling or unable to provide itself somewhat undercuts the notion of Bond as a figure of British supremacy, and serves as a constant, if subtle, reminder that Britain is not the global superpower its most jingoistic subjects might wish it were.

There is also the fact that Bond himself has some non-British roots. The novel You Only Live Twice establishes his parents as being one Andrew Bond from Glencoe in Scotland and a Swiss woman named Monique Delacroix. Whatever else he is, it would seem that James Bond is international to his very core.

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Outside of his origins and temperament, further clues to how Brexit may feature in future Bond films might also be discerned from the way in which series has dealt with shifts in global geopolitics in the past. The most notable example here is probably the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989 and 1990. This tumultuous change occurred itself during a brief six-year lull in the Bond film franchise, after the second of Timothy Dalton's tenure in the role, in 1989's License to Kill.

When the series returned with Pierce Brosnan in the title role in 1995's Goldeneye, the fall of communism took centre stage. The film's plot also focused on the treat of non-state actors exploiting the instability of a diminished post-communist Russia still equipped with the military technological might of a former global superpower and even its title sequence was full of thin women going hammer and tongs at statues of Lenin as well as the Soviet hammer an sickle.

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By contrast, Britain's entry into European Economic Community, the fore-runner to the modern European Union in 1973 seems to have been almost completely overlooked by Live and Let Die. That year's installment in the franchise seemed more anxious to keep up with the Hollywood trend for blaxploitation than wider political shifts affecting the UK. The Man With the Golden Gun, which hit cinemas in 1974, took more inspiration from the global oil crisis and The Spy Who Loved Me in 1975 was a comparatively straight tale of Cold War detente in the face of another archetypal Bond villain.

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It was probably with Moonraker in 1979 that the film series really began to display a new and increased European influence, and even this came largely from behind the scenes as Eon, the production company behind the Bond franchise, opted to shift much of the filming to studios and locations in France to avoid prohibitive taxes that would have been incurred in the UK.

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From the very first Eon Bond film, Dr No in 1962, the allure of international travel has always been a hallmark feature. Back then, even the inside of an airport arrivals hall was considered glamorous, but over the years succeeding instalments have encompassed an ever increasing number of exotic locales. While this does play into the series' overarching premise of international espionage, it is also regularly accompanied by some very conspicuous consumption, something that makes Bond the prefect vehicle for luxury brands to place their products. From cars to wristwatches, Bond has become the ambassador of choice for many a high-end brand over the years.

If Britain loses tariff-free trade into the European Single Market as could very well happen as part of some final Brexit deal, international non-EU exports will become even more important for the country. This could lead to more British exporters attempting to tie their brands to Bond's, but could it also lead to a Bond film that moves all of its action back inside of the borders the UK?

Such a move would be incredibly bold – while Skyfall and Spectre have both featured an increased amount on action on the streets of London, and climaxes that occur within the United Kingdom, both also drew heavily on exotic overseas locales too.

Yes, Britain still has a number of territories across the globe that could add some sense of overseas glamor, but most of these are defined by their remoteness and lack of significant indigenous economic activity. Gibraltar and Britain's various Caribbean island territories might regularly be accused of serving as tax havens, but it's difficult to imagine them taking the place of Istanbul, or Mexico City. It seems vanishingly unlikely that an opulent casino catering to the world's richest could be supported by the Falklands or Pitcairn Islands, and as far as luxury goes, Rockall really does live up to its name.

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Interestingly, a more humdrum and down-to-earth intelligence agent is exactly what former Bond producer Harry Saltzman helped bring to the big screen in the 1965 film The Ipcress File. A must-see film starring a young Michael Caine as working class spy, and gourmet cook, Harry Palmer, The Ipcress File sizzles from Otto Heller's brilliantly imaginative cinematography, but the film's standout scene occurs in a local supermarket (still an unusual innovation on the high streets of 1960s Britain) when Harry's old boss attempts to strong arm him into spying on his new boss amid talk of the cost, and taste, of tinned mushrooms. It's certainly not the kind of thing we'd expect from a Bond film, but it is an iconic example of a more UK-centric espionage thriller.

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Within the Bond canon, the scene that seems to offer the most prescient image of a post-Brexit Bond comes not from Fleming's novels or the various feature films, but from director Danny Boyle's short film Happy and Glorious, created for the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics. In the piece, Bond, played by Daniel Craig, escorts Queen Elizabeth II to a waiting helicopter that transports the pair to the Olympic stadium. When the chopper finally arrives at its destination both Bond and the Queen jump out of their vehicle, floating down on Union Flag parachutes to a rousing rendition of Monty Norman's James Bond theme. However unlikely a safe landing might seem for the secret agent and his octogenarian monarch, the Bond franchise will always provide fitting and patriotically pleasing endings, as well as promising further sequels in future.

Ultimately, whatever form the 25th Bond film takes, its central character will likely take Brexit in his well-tailored stride, as he matches wits with yet another over-powered, arrogant and egotistical enemy. Not because Brexit won't have an massive impact on the UK, but because as a character, as a fictional world and as a film franchise, Bond remains a self-consciously unrealistic fantasy in which our hero perpetually prevails, regardless.