‘A thoroughly English movie franchise’: Spectre, the James Bond films, and Genre

This article seeks to place the James Bond film Spectre (2015) in the contexts of the history of the Bond series and the evolution of the “Bondian” formula. It documents the history of the Bond series in relation to the institutional and economic contexts of the film industry and considers the Anglo-American political and cultural economies of the films. It maps the development of the Bond formula and then considers the “reboot” of the series in the in the films of Daniel Craig. The article concludes with an account of the production and reception discourses of Spectre, the most expensive Bond movie to date, arguing that it represents a hybrid of both traditional and new “Bondian” elements.

Keywords: James Bond films; Spectre; genre; production history; "Bondian".