How Old Would a "Young" James Bond Be?
Cheverian
Posts: 1,455MI6 Agent
Ever since Daniel Craig was announced as the next James Bond in 2005, people have argued about whether he was too old for the role.
A lot of the controversy centered around Craig's real age, not whether he could convincingly play a man several years younger than himself. It didn't help that Craig looked his real age IMO, but we often give a pass to actors in their 20s, for instance, portraying teenagers.
But stirring up that old argument ISN'T the point of this thread!
As we get ready for an eventual announcement of the the next actor to play Bond, I've started to wonder how young the character could plausibly be.
Others here know the fictional biography far better than I, but just doing the rough math...he graduated from Cambridge, enlisted in the Royal Navy, rose to the rank of commander (or was the rank awarded to him later as an honorific?), and served at least a while in the regular SIS before being promoted to 00 status. During this time he learned how to pilot just about any aircraft, scuba dive, and become an expert driver trained in evasion, defense, and pursuit.
Could a person accomplish all that before the age of 30? Obviously there's nothing realistic about James Bond, so let's confine ourselves to the remotely plausible. What's the minimum age you would accept?
Comments
Ian Fleming once said Bond was "permanently 35," so I'd say that's the minimum.
I'm no military expert, and plenty on here are, but I know that Commander is a really quite high rank and I'm not sure it's as quickly attained as it was in Fleming's day, when obviously people shot up through the ranks due to the war. A quick google makes it look like it's unusual for many to make it to Commander before mid-30s, and those would be fully serving officers, which Bond mostly wasn't as he went into the intelligence services. Obviously though he's the most impressive man in the world, so normal rules don't apply!
As a bit of fun following Piece Brosnans visit to the Ulster Aviation Society and being photographed beside XT864 "007" the former 892 NAS Phantom I put together a rough time line of his Bonds service, when he wore uniform it showed bot RN pilots wings and special forces parachute wings so -
Born 1953.
1971 University
1973 Dartmouth
1974 pilot training
1975 892 NAS Phantom pilot HMS Ark Royal.
1978 Naval Intelligence
1980 Detachment 14Int,
1982 Falklands attached to SBS rank Lt Cdr
1984 recruitment to SIS remaining with Royal Navy Reserve
1986, Archangel mission with 006.
Makes him 31-32 at start of his 00 service.
I go with Fleming, on screen he should be 35. When it comes to actors he should ideally be someone who can look roughly 35 for many years.