One of the most hotly anticipated titles that’s new on Netflix has to be the recently released first installment of co-writer/director Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon series. A movie that seems to be more hyped by the fans than the critics, the promotional hoopla surrounding the title has somehow led to Snyder’s take on what he’d like to do with the universe of James Bond movies.
After having read his pitch myself, and even as the person who wrote the not-so enthusiastic Rebel Moon: Part 1 - A Child of Fire review for this very site, I’m still kind of into this idea. Even if it's a concept that's been attempted, and in one instance achieved, through previous projects.
Zack Snyder’s James Bond Movie Idea
As Snyder recently spoke with The Atlantic, somehow the subject of his take on 007 came into view. Ever the visionary, as Rebel Moon was born from a rejected Star Wars pitch, the director wasted no time explaining the core of what he’d like to do with his hypothetical shot at the gun barrel. Which yielded the following idea:
It’d be cool to see, like, 20-year-old James Bond. The humble roots that he comes from. Whatever trauma of youth that makes you be able to be James Bond. There has to be something there.
For all of you die hard 007 fans, yes that is a concept that sounds more than vaguely familiar, and we’ll get to that soon. At the moment, I want to talk about how I actually like this idea. The long term applications might be a bit dicey, especially since producer Barbara Broccoli's remarks on going "too young" for Bond definitely seem to back the current sentiment that the character will be in his 30s for the next run of films.
Simultaneously, the idea of digging back into James’ past is something that’s absolutely connected to the current run of films. Theoretically, this could be an entry loosely tied to Skyfall, the Daniel Craig era touching on the canon of family tragedy that helped shape his agent’s outlook on life. Though that sort of pitch would need to jump the hurdle of EON Productions' current policy on spin-offs. In other words, they'd have to actually want to make them in the first place.
It’s an interesting pitch to go back to the early days of Commander Bond’s life, exploring those traumas a bit more, before sending him into His Majesty’s Secret Service. However, it’s not exactly a new concept, as we’ve seen similar ideas come up more than once in the past of James Bond legacy.
The Stories That Previously Proposed A Young James Bond Adventure
Previously, author Mark Edlitz’s The Lost Adventures of James Bond highlighted some interesting “what if” scenarios that were dreamed up when Timothy Dalton’s unmade 007 sequels failed to come to pass. One such pitch almost saw a movie that, in Casino Royale fashion, served as a prequel that saw Bond joining the Secret Service during the 1970’s, with Dalton still playing the character in his “mid-to-late 20s.”
Yet another notable incarnation of such a story is the more widely known Young Bond novel series, written by authors Charlie Higson and Steve Cole. Set in James’ teen years, these books delved into the younger life of 007 in the 1930s, putting him into peril long before he’d officially serve his country as an adult. Though the danger's still pretty high, and also ties into some of more biographical details that closer tie creator Ian Fleming to his literary progeny.
I’m not highlighting these concepts to totally derail Zack Snyder’s train of thought. On the contrary, whether he gets the official tap to direct this hypothetical James Bond prequel, or if he uses it to create a new franchise of his own, it’s good for him to dig into these resources and get to know them.
I may not dig the current incarnation of Rebel Moon: Part 1, I can definitely see that Snyder understood the worlds he pulled from to make his own vision. So to that effect, I merely hope he visits, or even revisits, these touchstones before potentially moving forward. Then again, the man's so busy with other universes in play, he might not get to this one any time soon, if at all.
One last thing worth noting is that while those of you with a Netflix subscription can watch Rebel Moon: Part 1 - A Child of Fire for yourselves, it might be a bit hard to try and guess who Zack Snyder would use in this potential film. The impressive members of the Rebel Moon cast are admittedly outside of the “20 year old” age bracket this story; though that’s if you’re only paying attention to the heavy hitters.
For all we know, one of the background players in this ambitious sci-fi movie title is someone that’s caught Snyder’s eye in this hypothetical exercise. Or, maybe someone we haven’t seen yet in Rebel Moon: Part 2 - The Scargiver, is the mystery person that just might be Zack Snyder’s dream James Bond. We’ll have to wait until April 19, 2024 to find out, as the next chapter of that specific space opera is one of many notables that are on the schedule of 2024 Netflix movie and TV release dates.
