Bond's number is up: black female actor 'is the new 007' (opens in new tab)

IIRC, Bond has retired before, and the plot of the book or movie starts with M convincing Bond to come out of retirement to help his replacement fix some crisis. IOW, they've done this before, IIRC.

I've never really understood the common concern that arises when some established character's race/gender/other-intrinsic-trait is changed (even if it's a different person in canon), where the proposal is "now it's not the same, just make it something new and leave the existing brand name unchanged." I totally understand not wanting a beloved character to change that dramatically, but after enough decades it just seems like a rational thing to try as a story writer. Why start a new universe when we have an existing one that, while quite worn, still has loads of great pre-existing characterisation, lore, and recognition?

You're curious why they're not retiring a film franchise that consistently pulls in hundreds of millions of dollars of profit with every installment? :)