By now you've likely heard that Bond 25 will be Daniel Craig's last film as James Bond, a role he's been playing for 12 years now, since Casino Royale (directed by Martin Campell). Over the course of his time as the world famous spy, Craig has helped shape his fair share of iconic moments, and it's difficult to deny the fact that the actor has proven himself a worthwhile successor to the likes of Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery.

If nothing else, he's just as dapper as the rest. The news of Craig's departure after the 25th Bond film has unsurprisingly left almost every fan of the franchise asking just one question: who will be the next James Bond? That's not what we'll be exploring here. No, we won't be looking at who will replace Daniel Craig. We'll be asking why.

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James-Bond-Sean-Connery

The Bond franchise pretty much shaped the spy genre, popularizing it worldwide. For decades, fans have been eager to see the new opening sequences, hear the songs that played over them, see who the new Bond girls were and generally enjoy the film viewing experience unique to a Bond film. High-tech gadgetry, over-the-top villains and spectacular last-minute escapes from death-traps were made famous by 007's adventures, but since the days of Brosnan's well-equipped secret agent, the franchise has had little new to offer. The Daniel Craig Bond films were laden with references to past films and iterations of Bond, and while that's all good fun, it's also a sign that the franchise might be on its last legs.

Filming hasn't even begun on the next installment, and there have already been major issues, namely the loss of Danny Boyle as the film's director over what has been reported simply as "creative differences." At the present time, there are several reports as to what those differences might be; The Sun reported that, according to unnamed sources, the studio sought to kill the iconic spy in "dramatic fashion" and Boyle was strongly against it, while The Telegraph reported that it was due to differences on the nature of the film's themes and central conflict with regards to the villain, citing concerns it was beginning to look a little too much like a modern-day Cold War. If these rumors are true, then it appears fans and filmmakers alike are faced with a problem concerning the franchise and its lack of impact and general relevance.

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James Bond was introduced to the public in 1953, but Ian Fleming had been developing the idea for a long time before that. During World War II, Fleming had expressed his desire to write a spy novel and it's clear that the war inspired a lot of his work. Many of the characters in the James Bond novel series -- including Bond himself -- were based on people in Fleming's life. Bond is therefore the embodiment of the ideals and the overall social consciousness of that era. He works as the fantasy of what every man wanted to be back then as they fought against that which they felt threatened society, like the Soviet Union.

The novels and subsequent films did what any decent work of fiction does and dramatized the elements of the real world. That's great, but the conflicts and ideals on which Bond was based are no longer relevant. Things are tense in a socio-political sense, and modern day conflicts might seem all too familiar, but not enough to justify the continuation of an antiquated fantasy spy figure and certainly not in the same way.

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This isn't news to anyone. The films themselves have shown an awareness of this issue. One of the questions raised  in the Daniel Craig Bond films is the question of whether or not the 007 programme is necessary in this day and age. The plot of Spectre (directed by Sam Mendes) was notably heavy in its focus on how easily spies like James Bond could be replaced with technology.

Daniel Craig as James Bond

M (Ralph Fiennes) and C (Andrew Scott) may have been arguing about practicality and not relevance, but that argument is still important because it speaks to how well the franchise resonates with its audience. Decades before, there was a very real fear that spies were hidden among the populace and that wars were indeed being fought through the world of espionage. Nowadays, people don't generally fear spies. They fear surveillance through ubiquitous technology, so James Bond and his whole world seems like more of a fantasy than it ever did before, one on par with the more generic action films we see today. The only real difference is that, since Bond is often seen as the spy, the name still carries some weight, with a heft aided by nostalgia.

So is there any potential left for this decades-old film franchise?

Maybe. Look around any kind of a forum discussing James Bond and you'll see that fans are open to trying something new with the franchise. You might have seen a lot of interest from various news outlets and fans about the possibility of Idris Elba playing the character, something that has recently been dismissed by Elba. Many have suggested giving the 007 role to a woman and reshaping that world in kind. It's an interesting concept, though it hasn't been able to win over everyone, including Rachel Weisz, who has expressed a disinterest in giving a famously male role to a female instead of creating a new female character with her own story.

That's probably the best idea because, as we've said, the core concept of James Bond is no longer as impactful. If the political context in which Bond's adventures takes place is lacking, it doesn't matter what the franchise does with the character. It's just another action film and it'd be a shame of that's how the Bond franchise were to end. Luckily it's not too late. So maybe the studio has it right if it intends to kill off the titular character in a spectacular way in Bond 25. If they do, they really shouldn't try to bring him back to life for a 26th installment.