The James Bond franchise focuses on the titular character, a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, nine other authors have written authorised Bond novels or novelisations: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver, William Boyd, Anthony Horowitz and Charlie Higson. The latest novel is On His Majesty's Secret Service by Charlie Higson, published in May 2023. Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond, and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny.
The character—also known by the code number 007 (pronounced "double-oh-seven")—has also been adapted for television, radio, comic strips, video games and film. The James Bond franchise is one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. The films constitute one of the longest continually running film series and have grossed over US$7.04 billion in total at the box office, making James Bond the fifth-highest-grossing film series to date. It started in 1962 with Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as Bond. , there have been twenty-five films in the Eon Productions series. The most recent Bond film, No Time to Die (2021), stars Daniel Craig in his fifth and final portrayal of Bond; he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series. There have also been two independent Bond film productions: Casino Royale (a 1967 spoof starring David Niven) and Never Say Never Again (a 1983 remake of an earlier Eon-produced film, 1965's Thunderball, both starring Connery). Casino Royale has also been adapted for television, as a one-hour show in 1954 as part of the CBS series Climax!.
The Bond films are renowned for a number of features, including their soundtracks; three of the movies' theme songs have received Academy Awards and others have received nominations. Other important elements which run through most of the films include Bond's cars, his guns, and the gadgets with which he is supplied by Q Branch. The films are also noted for Bond's relationships with various women, who are popularly referred to as "Bond girls".
Publication history
Creation and inspiration
left|thumb|upright|James Bond creator [[Ian Fleming in 1958]]
Ian Fleming created the fictional character of James Bond as the central figure for his works. Bond is an intelligence officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond is known by his code number, 007, and was a Royal Naval Reserve Commander. Fleming based his fictional creation on a number of people he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division and 30 Assault Unit during the Second World War, admitting that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war". Aside from Fleming's brother, a number of others also provided some aspects of Bond's make up, including Conrad O'Brien-ffrench, Patrick Dalzel-Job, Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale and Duško Popov.
The name James Bond came from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies. Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist's wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born". He further explained that:
On another occasion, Fleming said: "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, 'James Bond' was much better than something more interesting, like 'Peregrine Carruthers'. Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department."
thumb|upright|[[Hoagy Carmichael—Fleming's view of James Bond]]
Fleming decided that Bond should resemble both American singer Hoagy Carmichael and himself and in Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd remarks, "Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Likewise, in Moonraker, Special Branch officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is "certainly good-looking ... Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold."
Fleming endowed Bond with many of his own traits, including sharing the same golf handicap, the taste for scrambled eggs, and using the same brand of toiletries. Bond's tastes are also often taken from Fleming's own as was his behaviour, with Bond's love of golf and gambling mirroring Fleming's own. Fleming used his experiences of his career in espionage and all other aspects of his life as inspiration when writing, including using names of school friends, acquaintances, relatives and lovers throughout his books. While historians such as Norman Davies, Stewart Egerton, and Peter Zablocki focus on Urbański’s role in the 1943 Gibraltar air crash and General Sikorski's death, the personal connection to Fleming is further detailed in the 2024 biography Living with James Bond. According to this account, Skarbek provided Fleming with details from Urbański's 1949 passport, including specific physical identifiers and scars sustained at Stalag VB, which align with Fleming's definitive sketch of Bond. The operational links have been further examined through BBC-funded investigative research that makes it almost impossible to be anyone else. These findings align Urbański's movements with Fleming's intelligence circles and the wartime "GoldenEye" operations in Gibraltar.
Novels and related works
Ian Fleming novels
thumb|right|[[Goldeneye (estate)|Goldeneye, in Jamaica, where Fleming wrote all the Bond novels]]
Whilst serving in the Naval Intelligence Division, Fleming had planned to become an author; he had told a friend, "I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories." On 17 February 1952, he began writing his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, at his Goldeneye estate in Oracabessa, Jamaica, where he wrote all his Bond novels during the months of January and February each year. He started the story shortly before his wedding to his pregnant girlfriend, Ann Charteris, in order to distract himself from his forthcoming nuptials.
After completing the manuscript for Casino Royale, Fleming showed it to his friend (and later editor) William Plomer to read. Plomer liked it and submitted it to the publishers, Jonathan Cape, who did not like it as much. Cape finally published it in 1953 on the recommendation of Fleming's older brother Peter, an established travel writer. Between 1953 and 1966, two years after his death, twelve novels and two short-story collections were published, with the last two books—The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy and The Living Daylights—published posthumously. All the books were published in the UK through Jonathan Cape.
{| class="wikitable"
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- 1953 Casino Royale
- 1954 Live and Let Die
- 1955 Moonraker
- 1956 Diamonds Are Forever
- 1957 From Russia, with Love
- 1958 Dr. No
- 1959 Goldfinger
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- 1960 For Your Eyes Only (short stories)
- 1961 Thunderball
- 1962 The Spy Who Loved Me
- 1963 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
- 1964 You Only Live Twice
- 1965 The Man with the Golden Gun
- 1966 Octopussy and The Living Daylights (short stories; "The Property of a Lady" added to subsequent editions)
|}
Post-Fleming novels
After Fleming's death, a continuation novel, Colonel Sun, was written by Kingsley Amis (as Robert Markham) and published in 1968. Amis had already written a literary study of Fleming's Bond novels in his 1965 work The James Bond Dossier. Although novelisations of two of the Eon Productions Bond films appeared in print, James Bond, the Spy Who Loved Me and James Bond and Moonraker, both written by screenwriter Christopher Wood, the series of novels did not continue until the 1980s. In 1981, the thriller writer John Gardner picked up the series with Licence Renewed. Gardner went on to write sixteen Bond books in total; two of the books he wrote were novelisations of Eon Productions films of the same name: Licence to Kill and GoldenEye. Gardner moved the Bond series into the 1980s, although he retained the ages of the characters as they were when Fleming had left them. In 1996, Gardner retired from writing James Bond books due to ill health.
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- 1981 Licence Renewed
- 1982 For Special Services
- 1983 Icebreaker
- 1984 Role of Honour
- 1986 Nobody Lives for Ever
- 1987 No Deals, Mr. Bond
- 1988 Scorpius
- 1989 Win, Lose or Die
| style="width:400pt;"|
- 1989 Licence to Kill
- 1991 The Man from Barbarossa
- 1992 Death Is Forever
- 1993 Never Send Flowers
- 1994 SeaFire
- 1995 GoldenEye
|}
In 1996, the American author Raymond Benson became the author of the Bond novels. Benson had previously been the author of The James Bond Bedside Companion, first published in 1984.
By the time he moved on to other, non-Bond related projects in 2002, Benson had written six Bond novels, three novelisations and three short stories.
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- 1997 "Blast From the Past" (short story)
- 1997 Zero Minus Ten
- 1997 Tomorrow Never Dies
- 1999 "Midsummer Night's Doom" (short story)
- 1999 "Live at Five" (short story)
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- 1999 The World Is Not Enough
- 2000 DoubleShot
- 2001 Never Dream of Dying
- 2002 The Man with the Red Tattoo
- 2002 Die Another Day The book—titled Devil May Care—was published in the UK by Penguin Books and by Doubleday in the US. American writer Jeffery Deaver was then commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications to produce Carte Blanche, which was published on 26 May 2011. The book turned Bond into a post-9/11 agent, independent of MI5 or MI6. On 26 September 2013, Solo by William Boyd, set in 1969, was published. In October 2014, it was announced that Anthony Horowitz was to write a Bond continuation novel. Set in the 1950s two weeks after the events of Goldfinger, it contains material written, but previously unreleased, by Fleming. Trigger Mortis was released on 8 September 2015. Horowitz's second Bond novel, Forever and a Day, tells the origin story of Bond as a 00 agent prior to the events of Casino Royale. The novel, also based on unpublished material from Fleming, was released on 31 May 2018. Horowitz's third Bond novel, With a Mind to Kill, was published on 26 May 2022. Charlie Higson's first adult Bond novel, On His Majesty's Secret Service, was published on 4 May 2023 to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III and support the National Literacy Trust.
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- 2008 Devil May Care
- 2011 Carte Blanche
- 2013 Solo
- 2015 Trigger Mortis
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- 2018 Forever and a Day
- 2022 With a Mind to Kill
- 2023 On His Majesty's Secret Service
- 2026 King Zero
|}
Young Bond
The Young Bond series of novels was started by Charlie Higson and, between 2005 and 2009, five novels and one short story were published. The first Young Bond novel, SilverFin was also adapted and released as a graphic novel on 2 October 2008 by Puffin Books. In October 2013 Ian Fleming Publications announced that Stephen Cole would continue the series, with the first edition scheduled to be released in Autumn 2014.
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- 2005 SilverFin
- 2006 Blood Fever
- 2007 Double or Die
- 2007 Hurricane Gold
- 2008 By Royal Command & SilverFin (graphic novel)
- 2009 "A Hard Man to Kill" (short story)
|}
The Moneypenny Diaries
The Moneypenny Diaries are a trilogy of novels chronicling the life of Miss Moneypenny, M's personal secretary. The novels are written by Samantha Weinberg under the pseudonym Kate Westbrook, who is depicted as the book's "editor". The first instalment of the trilogy, subtitled Guardian Angel, was released on 10 October 2005 in the UK. A second volume, subtitled Secret Servant was released on 2 November 2006 in the UK, published by John Murray. A third volume, subtitled Final Fling was released on 1 May 2008.
{| class="wikitable"
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- 2005 The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel
- 2006 Secret Servant: The Moneypenny Diaries
- 2008 The Moneypenny Diaries: Final Fling
|}
Adaptations
Television
In 1954, CBS paid Ian Fleming $1,000 ($ in dollars) to adapt his novel Casino Royale into a one-hour television adventure, "Casino Royale", as part of its Climax! series. The episode aired live on 21 October 1954 and starred Barry Nelson as "Card Sense" James Bond and Peter Lorre as Le Chiffre. The novel was adapted for American audiences to show Bond as an American agent working for "Combined Intelligence", while the character Felix Leiter—American in the novel—became British onscreen and was renamed Clarence Leiter.
In 1964 Roger Moore appeared as James Bond in an extended comedy sketch opposite Millicent Martin as Sonia Sekova in her ATV TV series Mainly Millicent, which also makes reference to 007. It was written by Dick Hills and Sid Green. Undiscovered for several years, it reappeared as an extra in the DVD and Blu-ray release of Live and Let Die.
In 1973, a BBC documentary Omnibus: The British Hero featured Christopher Cazenove playing a number of such title characters (e.g. Richard Hannay and Bulldog Drummond). The documentary included James Bond in dramatised scenes from Goldfinger—notably featuring 007 being threatened with the novel's circular saw, rather than the film's laser beam—and Diamonds Are Forever.
In 1991, a spin-off animated series, James Bond Jr., was produced with Corey Burton in the role of Bond's nephew, James Bond Jr.
In 2022, a reality competition show based on the franchise, 007: Road to a Million, was released on Amazon Prime Video.
Radio
In 1958, the novel Moonraker was adapted for broadcast on South African radio, with Bob Holness providing the voice of Bond. According to The Independent, "listeners across the Union thrilled to Bob's cultured tones as he defeated evil master criminals in search of world domination".
The BBC have adapted five of the Fleming novels for broadcast: in 1990 You Only Live Twice was adapted into a 90-minute radio play for BBC Radio 4 with Michael Jayston playing James Bond. The production was repeated a number of times between 2008 and 2011.
On 24 May 2008 BBC Radio 4 broadcast an adaptation of Dr. No. The actor Toby Stephens, who played Bond villain Gustav Graves in the Eon Productions version of Die Another Day, played Bond, while Dr. Julius No was played by David Suchet. Following its success, a second story was adapted and on 3 April 2010 BBC Radio 4 broadcast Goldfinger with Stephens again playing Bond. Sir Ian McKellen was Auric Goldfinger and Stephens' Die Another Day co-star Rosamund Pike played Pussy Galore. The play was adapted from Fleming's novel by Archie Scottney and was directed by Martin Jarvis. In 2012, the novel From Russia, with Love was dramatised for Radio 4; it featured a full cast again starring Stephens as Bond. In May 2014 Stephens again played Bond, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with Alfred Molina as Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and Joanna Lumley (who appeared in the 1969 film adaptation) as Irma Bunt.
Comics
thumb|upright|right|John McLusky's rendition of James Bond
In 1957, the Daily Express approached Ian Fleming to adapt his stories into comic strips, offering him £1,500 per novel and a share of takings from syndication. After initial reluctance, Fleming, who felt the strips would lack the quality of his writing, agreed. To aid the Daily Express in illustrating Bond, Fleming commissioned an artist to create a sketch of how he believed James Bond looked. The illustrator, John McLusky, however, felt that Fleming's 007 looked too "outdated" and "pre-war" and changed Bond to give him a more masculine look. The first strip, Casino Royale was published from 7 July 1958 to 13 December 1958 and was written by Anthony Hern and illustrated by John McLusky.
Most of the Bond novels and short stories have since been adapted for illustration, including Kingsley Amis's Colonel Sun. The works were written by Henry Gammidge or Jim Lawrence, except for the adaptation of Dr. No which was written by the future Modesty Blaise creator Peter O'Donnell. Following John McLusky's tenure as the original artist, Yaroslav Horak took over illustration duties in 1966. After the Fleming and Amis material had been adapted, original stories were produced, continuing in the Daily Express and Sunday Express until May 1977.
Several comic book adaptations of the James Bond films have been published through the years: at the time of Dr. Nos release in October 1962, a comic book adaptation of the screenplay, written by Norman J. Nodel, was published in Britain as part of the Classics Illustrated anthology series. It was later reprinted in the United States by DC Comics as part of its Showcase anthology series, in January 1963. This was the first American comic book appearance of James Bond and is noteworthy for being a relatively rare example of a British comic being reprinted in a fairly high-profile American comic. It was also one of the earliest comics to be censored on racial grounds (some skin tones and dialogue were changed for the American market).
With the release of the 1981 film For Your Eyes Only, Marvel Comics published a two-issue comic book adaptation of the film. When Octopussy was released in the cinemas in 1983, Marvel published an accompanying comic; Eclipse also produced a one-off comic for Licence to Kill, although Timothy Dalton refused to allow his likeness to be used. New Bond stories were also drawn up and published from 1989 onwards through Marvel, Eclipse Comics, Dark Horse Comics and Dynamite Entertainment.
Films
Eon Productions films
thumb|Franchise logo, 1995–present
Eon Productions, the company of Canadian Harry Saltzman and American Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, released the first cinema adaptation of an Ian Fleming novel, Dr. No (1962), based on the eponymous 1958 novel and featuring Sean Connery as 007. Connery starred in a further four films before leaving the role after You Only Live Twice (1967), which was taken up by George Lazenby for On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). Lazenby left the role after just one appearance and Connery was brought back for his last Eon-produced film Diamonds Are Forever.
Roger Moore was appointed to the role of 007 for Live and Let Die (1973). He played Bond a further six times over twelve years, before being replaced by Timothy Dalton for two films. After a six-year hiatus, during which a legal wrangle threatened Eon's productions of the Bond films, Irish actor Pierce Brosnan was cast as Bond in GoldenEye (1995); he remained in the role for a total of four films through 2002. In 2006, Daniel Craig was given the role for Casino Royale (2006), which rebooted the series. Craig appeared for a total of five films. The series has grossed well over $7 billion to date, making it the fifth-highest-grossing film series.
In March 2022, Amazon purchased Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for $8.5 billion, and the distribution rights to its library of films, including the James Bond movies. After creating the merged Amazon MGM Studios, the company became involved in developing the next theatrical iteration of the character. By February 2025, the studio paid an additional $1 billion to acquire creative control of the future of the franchise from producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson; with the duo officially retiring from their historical oversight career for James Bond feature films. As part of the deal, the family will receive a monetary "Bond dividend" for the foreseeable future. Amazon MGM commence the search for a studio executive to oversee the property (à la Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige), while also determining the next respective director and star of the franchise. In March 2025, Amazon closed deals with Amy Pascal and David Heyman to take charge of the franchise and replace Broccoli and Wilson as producers on its next instalment. By June of the same year, Denis Villeneuve was announced as the director, from a script written by Steven Knight.
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File:Daniel Craig - Film Premiere "Spectre" 007 - on the Red Carpet in Berlin (22387409720) (cropped).jpg|
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{| class="wikitable"
|-
! style="width:240px;"|Title
!Year
! style="width:110px;"|Actor
! style="width:180px;"|Director
|-
|Dr. No
|1962
| rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"|Sean Connery
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|Terence Young
|-
|From Russia with Love
|1963
|-
|Goldfinger
|1964
| style="text-align:center;"|Guy Hamilton
|-
|Thunderball
|1965
| style="text-align:center;"|Terence Young
|-
<!--DO not add The 1967 Casino Royale to this list. It is a non-Eon film and is listed in the non-Eon films list, below!-->
|You Only Live Twice
|1967
| style="text-align:center;"|Lewis Gilbert
|-
|On Her Majesty's Secret Service
|1969
| style="text-align:center;"|George Lazenby
| style="text-align:center;"|Peter R. Hunt
|-
|Diamonds Are Forever
|1971
| style="text-align:center;"|Sean Connery
| rowspan="3" style="text-align:center;"|Guy Hamilton
|-
|Live and Let Die
|1973
| rowspan="7" style="text-align:center;"|Roger Moore
|-
|The Man with the Golden Gun
|1974
|-
|The Spy Who Loved Me
|1977
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|Lewis Gilbert
|-
|Moonraker
|1979
|-
|For Your Eyes Only
|1981
| rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"|John Glen
|-
|Octopussy
|1983
|-
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|A View to a Kill
|1985
|-
|The Living Daylights
|1987
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|Timothy Dalton
|-
|Licence to Kill
|1989
|-
|GoldenEye
|1995
| rowspan="4" style="text-align:center;"|Pierce Brosnan
| style="text-align:center;"|Martin Campbell
|-
|Tomorrow Never Dies
|1997
| style="text-align:center;"|Roger Spottiswoode
|-
|The World Is Not Enough
|1999
| style="text-align:center;"|Michael Apted
|-
|Die Another Day
|2002
| style="text-align:center;"|Lee Tamahori
|-
|Casino Royale
|2006
| rowspan="5" style="text-align:center;"|Daniel Craig
| style="text-align:center;"|Martin Campbell
|-
|Quantum of Solace
|2008
| style="text-align:center;"|Marc Forster
|-
|Skyfall
|2012
| rowspan="2" style="text-align:center;"|Sam Mendes
|-
|Spectre
|2015
|-
| No Time to Die
|2021
| style="text-align:center;"|Cary Joji Fukunaga
|}
Non-Eon films
In 1967, Casino Royale was adapted into a parody Bond film starring David Niven as Sir James Bond and Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd. Niven had been Fleming's preference for the role of Bond. The result of a court case in the High Court in London in 1963 allowed Kevin McClory to produce a remake of Thunderball titled Never Say Never Again in 1983. The film, produced by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm production company and starring Sean Connery as Bond, was not part of the Eon series of Bond films. In 1997, the Sony Corporation acquired all or some of McClory's rights in an undisclosed deal, , Eon holds the full adaptation rights to all of Fleming's Bond novels.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|-
! Title
! Year
! Actor
! Director(s)
|-
|Casino Royale
|1967
|David Niven
|Ken Hughes<br />John Huston<br />Joseph McGrath<br />Robert Parrish<br />Val Guest<br />Richard Talmadge
|-
|Never Say Never Again
|1983
|Sean Connery
|Irvin Kershner
|}