Bond 25: Eon pulls a Horowitz?

Lashana Lynch publicity still released during April “reveal” event in Jamaica

Spoilers. Again. Spoiler adverse should move on. That is all.

Eon Productions, with Bond 25, may be adapting an idea utilized in one of Anthony Horowitz’s 007 continuation novels.

The author’s Forever and a Day, set in 1950, begins with the death of 007. But it’s not James Bond. It’s another agent who has been killed while on assignment. That death creates the 00-section vacancy that Bond fills. He also takes on the 007 number.

On July 13, the Mail on Sunday (sister publication of the Daily Mail) said Lashana Lynch’s Bond 25 character assumed the 007 number after Daniel Craig’s James Bond left the secret service. Same idea as the one Horowitz used, just applying it toward the end of Bond’s career instead of the start.

There’s no way to know if Bond 25’s sceenwriting crew actually was inspired by Horowitz’s novel. But Horowitz used it first.

This idea has been speculated by fans for a while now. Still, that hasn’t stopped adverse reaction, which some fans complaining about “political correctness” and so on.

The basic idea means that 007 (or any other 00 code number) isn’t assigned to any one person permanently. It can get passed along as staff turnover occurs.

Also, it means a 00-number isn’t like a uniform number that can be retired, a la the New York Yankees with 2 (Derek Jeter), 3 (Babe Ruth), 4 (Lou Gehrig), 5 (Joe DiMaggio), etc., etc., no longer being worn by current players. Major League Baseball retired 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson for all major league teams.

UPDATE: Jack Lugo, webmaster of the James Bond Radio website, reminds me via Twitter that in the You Only Live Twice novel that Bond was assigned a new number, 7777, when assigned what’s supposed to be a diplomatic mission.