A few people have mentioned in the comments on my recent Bond articles as to the possibility of a Shuffling the Bonds, the concept has legs even in just rearranging the OTL actors but there's a lot more meat on the bone when you have a mix of OTL and ATL actors.
List of actors to have played the James Bond character in EON films:
Roger Moore (1962-1970) [1]
Burt Reynolds (1970-1972) [2]
Michael Billington (1979-1985) [3]
Pierce Brosnan (1987-1998) [4]
Colin Salmon (2001-2007) [5]
Henry Cavill (2012-present) [6]
[1] The decision of producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman to cast a relative unknown in the lead role of what they hoped to be a successful series of films was one that could have easily backfired on them. They would consider various name stars including Cary Grant, James Mason, Patrick McGoohan, Richard Burton, and David Niven but none would commit for three films or for what the producers were willing to pay. They turned their attention to lesser known actors and many were considered, including future Spaghetti Western and giallo stalwart Sean Connery, before they eventually settled on Roger Moore, who was more known in the United States for appearing in TV Westerns than he was in the United Kingdom. Director Terence Young would inject much humour into Dr. No, which was chosen to be adapted after the initial choice, Thunderball, became embroiled in a legal tussle between character creator Ian Fleming and writer Kevin McClory. This humour would play no small part in making the film the runaway success it was and catapulting Moore to super-stardom. He would play opposite Christopher Lee as the title character and Ursula Andress as love interest Honey Rider, and the end credits promised James Bond would return in From Russia with Love.
From Russia with Love (1963) had been chosen as the second film after President John F. Kennedy had selected it as one of his ten favourite books of all time, and the President would later grace the US premier of the film in New York in April 1964. Moore returned along with Bernard Lee as his superior M, Lois Maxwell as flirtatious secretary Miss Moneypenny, Peter Burton as equipment manager Boothroyd, and Eunice Gayson as Bond's semi-regular girlfriend Sylvia Trench. Newcomers included Sylvia Koscina as Tatatiana Romanova, Katina Paxinou as Rosa Klebb, Joseph Wiseman as Kronsteen, Joe Robinson as Red Grant, and Francis de Wolff as Kerim Bey. de Wolff sepped into the large part of Bey after initial choice Pedro Armendariz had to drop out due to failing health that would see him take his own life. Once again the film was a success, and the end credits promised James Bond would return again in Goldfinger.
Goldfinger (1964) would go on to be the blueprint for many subsequent Bond films, and though the first two were successful this was the first to be a genuine blockbuster even to the extent of drawing cinema-goers away from the much more star-studded adaptation of Casino Royale starring Cary Grant and directed by Howard Hawks. Despite it's large budget (more than Dr. No and From Russia with Love combined), the producers were reticent to acquiesce to any greater share or salary when requested. Such requests saw Terence Young replaced as director by Guy Hamilton, and saw Bond's CIA contact recast from Jack Lord to Austin Willis. The producers also refused to pay Orson Welles what he demanded to appear as the villainous title character, so the role instead went to German actor Gert Fröbe. Honor Blackman would depart the hit television series The Avengers to appear as leading lady Pussy Galore, and took great delight in mentioning the characters name as often as she could in interviews. For many fans Goldfinger would be the definitive Bond film, and for that reason for many of them Roger Moore remains the definitive Bond able to play the characters charming and vicious sides in equal measure.
Ian Fleming did not live to see the success Goldfinger would become, though before he died the long-running court case with Kevin McClory over Thunderball would be settled out of court. McClory would retain the screen rights over the novel's story, plot, and characters. The producers disliked the idea of another competing film so tried to coax McClory into adapting Thunderball with EON. The relationship was a dismal one and the project quickly fell through, with Broccoli and Saltzman eventually deciding they could take the risk of McClory's competition after so decisively beating Casino Royale at the box office. Instead the next film they would adapt was On Her Majesty's Secret Service, after taking the script through several drafts to remove all references to terrorist organisation SPECTRE and its leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld, leaving those plot strands from the first two films forever hanging.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1966) would be the first time the series would radically depart from the plot of Fleming's novel, Bond would still fall in love and marry Countess Tracy di Vincenzo, played by Yvonne Monlaur, but gone was the hunt for Ernst Stavro Blofeld instead a new villain, the enigmatic Franz Oberhauser, played by Jack Palance, is behind the plot to brainwash a group of young women into unleashing biological agents into the global food supply. The film was seen by some as a step backward from Goldfinger, with its single location in the Swiss Alps as opposed to the globetrotting of the prior film. It also represented an injection of a lot more camp into the series, turning the humour of Young and the farce of Hamilton into the defining tone of the film under director Peter Hunt. The producers had tried to coax both Hamilton and Young into returning to directorial duties but the former found himself burned out from Goldfinger and the latter elected instead to adapt Thunderball for Kevin McClory.
It's a falsehood that Thunderball outperformed On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but it was certainly a far closer run thing than Goldfinger vs. Casino Royale two years prior. The EON film still won handily, but critical reception was far more divisive. Discussion mostly centres around the epic scope of Thunderball compared with the much more intimate EON film, as well as the influence of Young making Thunderball much more akin to the earlier EON films, and on the merits of Roger Moore vs. John Richardson.
The Man With the Golden Gun (1968) was chosen to be adapted after Broccoli decided to blame, of all things, the presence of snow in On Her Majesty's Secret Service for its failure to match the success of Goldinger. The film would see production return to Jamaica, and was blatant in it's attempt to recapture the feel of Dr. No. They even went so far as to seek out Ursula Andress for a cameo though she demanded too much money. Elements of the short sotry "For Your Eyes Only" were included in the screenplay that saw Bond battle against swarthy hitman Francisco Scaramanga, played by Sean Connery, here imaigined as a sort of 'anti-Bond', and Count von Hammerstein, the ex-Gestapo leader of the Cuban secret police, played by Donald Pleasance.
Many considered the film an improvement over the previous effort with its darker themes and return to the Caribbean, but it still did not perform nearly as well as the first three films. It outperformed On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but only barely and without the presence of a competing film. Changing tastes also might have caused the film to perform below expectations, 1968 was a time of political turmoil and Bond seemed a relic of a more optimistic time. The Beatles had split up, Batman was long-gone, and the sheen had long worn off the Kennedy Administration after a calamitous second term. After agreeing his last two films on an individual basis, Roger Moore finally decided that at the age of forty-one he had grown a bit long in the tooth to be playing James Bond and told Broccoli and Saltzman he would not be returning to the role. He would go on to work with the likes of Alfred Hitchock and Stanley Kubrick, and to many people remains the epitome of James Bond on the big screen.
[2] Deciding that the key to continued success was penetration of the American market, the producers made the decision that the next actor to fill the role of James Bond would be an American. After actors such as Adam West, Clint Eastwood, and John Gaving were considered to varying degrees eventually Burt Reynolds was chosen to replace Roger Moore in the lead role. To further this new American feel to the series the next novel chosen to be adapted would be Diamonds Are Forever, with Richard Maibum's initial draft being suitably Americanised by Tom Mankiewicz and directed by Canadian Sidney J. Furie who had previously worked with Saltzman on the adaptation of Len Deighton's The IPCRESS File. Reynolds as CIA agent James Bond would lock horns with the Sprang brothers, mobsters played by Martin Landau and Leonard Nimoy, whilst his love interest Tiffany Case would be played by Racquel Welch. The climactic boat chase across Lake Mead would draw heaps of praise, and the film would be the most successful since Goldfinger although would come nowhere near to matching the success of that film.
Live and Let Die (1972) would continue the American feel for the series, only this time would take strong influence from a popular strand in American cinema - blaxploitation. Mankiewicz and Furie would return to writing and directing duties. Reynolds would return to the role, this time facing off against Julius Harris as the drug lord Mr. Big and romance Diana Ross as Big's fortune teller Solitaire. Casting Solitaire as a black woman was a departure from Fleming's novel, and made it the first time the series portrayed an interracial relationship on screen. The film would be criticised for being too close to Diamonds Are Forever to the point of being a paint-by-numbers affair, and would be the lowest grossing film of the series thus far. Reynolds also tired of the restrictions placed on him by the producers including what roles he could accept and how he should look, so asked to be released from his contract. With Live and Let Die being seen as a failure the producers agreed, and Reynolds first action was to appear in a film scripted by stuntman friend Hal Needham and also grow a huge moustache which he was forbidden from doing by Broccoli. Saltzman suggested to Broccoli that the series should take a rest. Broccoli eventually relented, and though the end credits of Live and Let Die promised James Bond would return there were no plans yet in place to begin production.
[3] Were it up to Broccoli, production would have begun on the next Bond film as soon as he had an actor secured. Unfortunately, a series of commercial failures saw Salztman forced to sell his 50% ownership of the series to Universal Studios. Disagreements between Broccoli and the studio on the best way to take the franchise saw the next Bond film linger in development for a couple of years. Inspiration for how to get the series back off the ground would come form the unlikeliest of places. Science fiction films were big business by the late 1970s, kick-started by the success of 1976's Flash Gordon, directed by George Lucas. A slew of other successes would follow in its wake including Steven Spielberg's Buck Rogers, Ridley Scott's Dune, John Carpenter's Alien, Philip Kaufman's Galactica, Robert Wise's big-screen adaptation of Star Trek, and Brian De Palma's Planet of the Apes.
Moonraker (1979) would be the first Bond film to exceed the success of Goldfinger. Fleming's novel was largely abandoned except for characters and instead a new plot was devised as the script went through various writers. Broccoli for his part brought back series regular Richard Maibum, but the young director the studio insisted on sent it through a series of rewrites by many including science fiction author Leigh Brackett, who had scripted Hawks' Casino Royale in the 1960s. Broccoli did not initially see eye to eye with Steven Spielberg until the time came to chose who would play 007. The studio wanted an American, Broccoli wanted a British actor, Burt Reynolds seemingly souring him to the idea of a US actor in the lead. To the surprise of the studio, Spielberg took Broccoli's side. After a long casting call Michael Billington would be chosen as the third actor to play the role in an EON film ahead of Timothy Dalton and Michael Jayston. The action was transplanted from the Home Counties to Florida, where in a scene reminiscent of Goldfinger Bond is contacted by CIA Agent Felix Leiter (Harrison Ford) to investigate why aerospace magnate Hugo Drax (James Mason) is cheating at cards. Bond links up with another CIA agent undercover inside Drax's organisation, Gala Brand, played by Jaclyn Smith, who like Honor Blackman was poached from a successful television programme - Charlie's Angels. The climax would see Bond and Brand launched into space in an attempt to bring down Drax's orbital laser with which he attempts to hold the world to ransom, before Drax himself is dispatched when his shuttle depressurises. The film would be produced at Universal's new studios in Orlando, becoming one of the key features filmed at the new combination theme park / studio.
For Your Eyes Only (1981) was chosen as the title of the next film whilst Moonraker was still in production. The idea was to do a very grounded film following on from the space-going Moonraker. Billington returned as Bond, and Smith returned for a cameo as Gala Brand. The Mediterranean setting saw much of the interior work done in the United Kingdom, away from the use of Universal Studios Orlando, which Broccoli detested feeling it to be a backwater. The duelling crime lords of the film, Kristatos and Colombo, would be played by Terence Stamp and Ricardo Montalbán, respectively. Spielberg was interested in returning, but instead Broccoli drafted in English television director John Irvin, after seeing his adaptation of John le Carré's Tinker Tailor Solider Spy believing he would bring the right grounding for the film. Irvin became the first Englishman to direct a Bond film since the 1960s. Though still successful For Your Eyes Only would not match the success of Moonraker, but that was a very high bar to clear so there was no doubt that once again James Bond would return.
The Property of a Lady (1983) would combine elements of two Fleming short stories, "Octopussy" and "The Property of a Lady". The film would take Bond from Sotheby's in London to the Austrian Alps to Berlin in pursuit of KGB agent Maria Freudenstein (Cassandra Harris) and jewel smuggler Dexter Smythe (Richard Burton). The Property of a Lady would prove to be Burton's last performance and he would die in 1984. Broccoli was worried about the first sight of snow in a Bond film since On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but a returning Irvin was able to craft another taut thriller this one reminiscent of From Russia with Love. It would attract great reviews and would perform slightly better than For Your Eyes Only, as well as marking the first time Cubby Broccoli would meet Pierce Brosnan. However, with Kevin McClory bringing another adaptation of Thunderball to light in the wake of the renewed success of the EON films, Broccoli wanted to go big to settle a twenty-year old score.
From a View to a Kill (1985) saw the return after over twenty years of Guy Hamilton to the directors chair of a Bond film. He had joined the ranks of blockbuster directors after making Superman and Superman II. Billington was reluctant to return after three successfully received films and not wanting a poorly performing one under his belt, he too was worried about the possibility of the new Thunderball splitting ticket sales. Broccoli was able to lure him back however, not wishing to be breaking in a new Bond when facing competition for the first time in twenty years. Fleming's short story of the same name would be adapted in full during the pre-credits updated to the 1980s and seeing a lengthy motorcycle chase across rural Germany. The rest of the film would be an original script from Michael G. Wilson and Richard Maibaum, taking place in California where Bond investigates disappearing nuclear submarines. Harrison Ford and Jaclyn Smith would both return to the series, with James Brolin as billionaire playboy and KGB agent Max Whitaker. Some criticism was levelled at the film bringing nothing new to the series, but this was nothing compared with the rejection of the trouble-ridden production of Thunderball. An unhappy star in the shape of Sam Neill and an unhappy director in the shape of Andrew V. McLaglen would bury the film, citing McClory's controlling nature.
[4] The dragon of Kevin McClory finally slayed, and Michael Billington bowing out on a high, the search was on for the next Bond. Timothy Dalton would again be strongly considered but the role would go this time to Pierce Brosnan, who was known to the producers from his wife Cassandra Harris appearing in The Property of a Lady. As to what the title of the next film would be, they were fast running out of novels and short stories, but floundering studio Columbia Pictures was keen to offload as many properties as they could to get a quick cash injection. Broccoli and Universal split the cost to buy the rights to Fleming's first novel.
Casino Royale (1987) was a departure from prior Bond films in a number of respects. It was the first that reset the Bond series with a new actor to look at Bond first becoming a 00-agent and gaining his licence to kill, themes taken from the novel which chronicles his first assignment. The film, directed by Martin Campbell, another import from British television, follows the plot of the novel closely. Brosnan would be joined by Anthony Hopkins as Le Chiffre, Miranda Richardson as Vesper Lynde, Joe Don Baker as Felix Leiter, Yves Montand as René Mathis, and Kenneth Griffith as M. The new direction of the series was greeted with positive reviews, as was the new Bond.
You Only Live Twice (1989) would take 007 outside of Europe and the Americas for the first time, not counting a brief sojourn across the Bosporus in From Russia With Love. Production would be concentrated in Japan and Brosnan would return along with Griffith. In the novel the villain was Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who obviously could not be used, instead the alias of Shatterhand was used for the villain who is the leader of an unidentified terrorist group looking to create instability in Asia. Shatterhand was played by Ken Takakura, changing the villain character from European to Japanese. Most of the other roles would be similarly filled by Japanese actors, including as Juzo Itami Tiger Tanaka and Fukumi Kuroda as Kissy Susuki. Arguably the most unique entry in the series up to that point given its atypical setting, people turned out in droves for the film and it actually out-performed Casino Royale.
The Living Daylights (1991) was the last of Brosnan's initial contract of three films, like From a View to a Kill it adapted the original short story in full as part of the pre-credits before spiralling off into a classic Cold War thriller seeing the KGB look to reassert itself in former Warsaw Pact nations. There was just one issue, the Cold War ended a few months before the film came out with the Soviet Union's final transition to democracy. Along with snow, the end of four decades of nuclear standoff would prove to be box office poison for the Bond franchise. Reviewers were kind, praising the film on its own merits but bemoaning the dated aspects of the plot.
Quantum of Solace (1994) would prove to be the last film Cubby Broccoli would oversee, already grooming stepson Michael G. Wilson and daughter Barbara Broccoli to take over from him. It would also prove to be one of his more lacklustre efforts, ending his run of producing fifteen Bond films with a whimper rather than a bang. Brosnan would return, more out of loyalty to Cubby than any strong desire to do another film. Something of Brosnan's boredom definitely came through in his performance as 007 investigated stolen nuclear bomb plans being sold to post-Soviet terrorists. It was certainly a modern take on the series, but one that seemed more paint-by-numbers than the previous Cold War thriller. Cubby Broccoli would pass away in 1996 at the age of 87, with production on the next Bond film already underway.
Colonel Sun (1998) was the first film to be adapted from a Bond novel by someone other than Ian Fleming, being adapted from Kingsley Amis' 1968 novel of the same name published under the pseudonym Robert Markham. Obtaining the rights to the novel were one of the last actions Broccoli completed in his capacity as producer, seeing the use of a People's Liberation Army villain as a way of updating for the Cold War. Instead of sabotaging efforts at East-West détente the Colonel, played by Chow Yun-Fat, plans to sabotage attempts at a smooth handover of Hong Kong by the British to the Chinese. Though Broccoli and Brosnan had both considered Quantum of Solace to be Brosnan's last as Bond Wilson and Broccoli were relucant to take a chance on a new actor, this saw the film delayed from its original 1997 release to 1998, by which point Hong Kong had reverted to Chinese control without incident. Chinese director John Woo was drafted in for directorial duties, but his stylised direction proved divisive for fans. Objectively many consider Colonel Sun a great action film, particular praise directed towards Michelle Yeoh as Bond's partner (distinctly not a love interest) and Jet Li as Sun's henchman, but many question whether it was a fit for the Bond franchise.
[5]Brosnan said his fifth film was unequivocally his last, and Broccoli and Wilson began searching for the next actor to fill the boots of 007. This was not just a recasting though, this would be the Bond that would define their initial stewardship of the series. It was actually Pierce Brosnan that would suggest the man that would become his successor, he had acted opposite him in, of all things, an episode of Tales from the Crypt, but suggested his performance as a troubled detective in Cracker as proof of his talent. In a crowded field of actors including Daniel Craig and Clive Owen, Colin Salmon would become the fifth actor to play James Bond in an EON production. He would also become the first black actor to take the role.
The Spy Who Loved Me (2001) would only take the title of the Ian Fleming novel from which it was adapted, per Fleming's initial agreement with Cubby Broccoli four decades prior. The plot would see Bond follow a drug trail tied to a terrorist organisation from London to Montreal, the action would not venture outside either city making it the most urban set Bond film. The gritty direction of the series was another thing that divided fans in the same way Colonel Sun did. Though Salmon would earn praise for his performance along with Rachel Weisz as his love interest, an RMCP agent based in Montreal. The lack of a strong central villain instead of a number of bland terrorists was seen as a major weak point. The film was successful enough at the box office but this was seen as more due to the excitement around a new Bond than any sign of the quality of the film.
The Hildebrand Rarity (2004) would take things in the opposite direction, gone were the dark cityscapes and instead Bond would spent three quarters of the film on a luxury yacht in the Indian Ocean. Wilson and Broccoli would also address the criticisms of a strong central villain by having Milton Krest, played by Chris Cooper, front and centre for the bulk of the film as someone suspected of smuggling weapons Bond is investigating. Soon it becomes clear that Krest is involved in more than just fishing and traps Bond on his yacht where he is hunted by his henchmen. Bond bests the villain with the help of his abused wife, Monica Bellucci, who is the one to kill Krest. The Hildebrand Rarity would draw some questions on its use of violence, particularly around Krest abusing his wife, but would be seen on the whole as an improvement on The Spy Who Loved Me. This would be reflected at the box office.
The World Is Not Enough (2007) would be the first Bond film to not take its title from a novel or short story, instead being taken from a line in both the novel and film On Her Majesty's Secret Service. After two straight thrillers there was a desire to take the next Bond film in an epic direction. Action would be split between London, Zurich, and California as Bond battles technology magnate Philip Seymour Hoffman. The tongue-in-cheek direction was felt to be too light-hearted for what had been built in the Salmon films so far. Though it was a financial success the film came under strong criticism, split between audiences who liked it and critics who did not.
Plans were already underway for another Bond film, and the search for another actor since Colin Salmon considered three to be plenty, but changing production methods in Hollywood would change the Bond franchise forever more.
[6]In early 2007 Kevin McClory died at the age of 82, Broccoli and Wilson were eager to by the rights to Thunderball, the missing puzzle piece for forty-five years, form his estate. They were pipped to the post however, by Universal Studios. This was a non-issue, really, since Universal had a working relationship with EON since the 1970s. What Broccoli and Wilson could not foresee was how the changing way films were being made in the new century made Universal offer to buy them out of the majority of their holdings and accept consultant positions, essentially handing over production of the franchise to the studio. The studio had hit upon success with their Buck Rogers franchise and the shared universe based on their old horror movies modelled on the Warner Bros/Action Comics style, and they wanted to bring Bond likewise in-house. By 2010, Broccoli and Wilson would relent, received massive pay-offs and were kicked upstairs.
Casino Royale (2012) would be the first film produced under the new structure, with EON as a full subsidiary of Universal. It represented a radical departure for the series by adapting a novel already adapted once in the series, as well as being the first to be set period with the publication of the novel. Henry Cavill would emerge as the choice of both the studio and director Christopher Nolan. SMERSH would be replaced as the overarching villainous organisation by SPECTRE, and the end credits promised Bond would return in Live and Let Die. The film would be a critical and commercial success, doing as well as The World Is Not Enough and being significantly better reviewed by critics.
Live and Let Die (2014) was the second of Cavill's unprecedented ten-film contract. It would prove to be less successful than Casino Royale but would receive praise for successfully portraying the racism inherent in that era, though criticism still for Bond not reacting to Leiter's racism with more objection. Both Live and Let Die and it's successor, Moonraker (2016), would be directed by Matthew Vaughn. Moonraker would see another instance of declining returns, and many critics and fans were beginning to question whether a film every two years was sustainable in such an era, but they were still massively successful.
Cary Joji Fukunaga would be chosen as the director of the next two entries, Diamonds Are Forever (2018) and From Russia, With Love (2020). Diamonds Are Forever would repeat the similar pattern of prior entries in the 2010s and see a slight decrease in revenue but still massively successful - particularly in the now important Russian and Chinese markets. From Russia, With Love is expected to continue the trend though likely to break box office records in the Soviet Union, where the script has been tailored to pass the Russian censors.
Rumours have emerged that Universal are perfectly happy with the performance of the series, because they know that the 2020s will see the release of Dr. No, Goldfinger, and Thunderball - the films everyone has been waiting for since 2012.