Do you consider all the Bond movies from Dr. No to Die Another Day one continuity?

[CyberpunkCentral]

There is a theory that each version of James Bond are actually different agents from one another and that "James Bond" is just a code name they go by. I'm sure some fans don't like this theory, but it actually makes sense unless I'm missing something.

[Gizz]

No not really like most when a new actor plays Bond I see it as a restart to the series.

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

There is a theory that each version of James Bond are actually different agents from one another and that "James Bond" is just a code name they go by. I'm sure some fans don't like this theory, but it actually makes sense unless I'm missing something.

That's just stupid. The entire point of the series until the Craig era is that you didn't need to see the Bond film before it, or any Bond film at all, when a new 007 movie was released. You could just walk in and enjoy it. Audiences back then didn't need to have a "canon" and running narrative threads. When a new Bond was introduced there was no need to "reboot" and start over with tedious "origin stories". They felt audiences didn't care and they were right.

There are some light narrative elements involving Blofeld being used here and there that dispel this theory also (like Moore being at Tracy's grave in For Your Eyes Only) but they're more like easter eggs that don't impact the main story line.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by CyberpunkCentral

There is a theory that each version of James Bond are actually different agents from one another and that "James Bond" is just a code name they go by. I'm sure some fans don't like this theory, but it actually makes sense unless I'm missing something.

That's just a theory that the obsessive types made up because they can't deal with the fact that different actors played the character. But somehow they deal with the fact that the movies were made out-of-sequence with the original novels and after the first few films either weren't based on the novels at all or completely changed the plots.

I do remember at the beginning of one of the films, probably Live & Let Die, the first Roger Moore film, where you hear M saying something to the effect of, "too many people know what you look like. We have to change your face" and Moore, probably in the same film, breaking the third wall and saying, "this never happened to the other guy."