There IS no REAL problem... it's just insecure man-babies having trouble sharing their f#$%ing toys, as usual. Frankly, the franchise still makes money at the box office, but look how long they have to stagger the movies to keep them from looking threadbare and culturally devoid of merit. I have LOVED the Daniel Craig era, and think the cinematic Bond as a franchise is back on track as a serious espionage/action adventure series. What I DON'T like--and am notoriously vocal about--is this insinuation that James Bond is the ONLY person who can fill the 007 role and save the day. Nowhere else in the 21st Century can you hold your head up and insist on this obvious piece of bullshit... except at a white supremacist rally.
I for one would MUCH prefer that EON--which is still relevant to my interests, for some reason--either finds a way to update its political stance on world politics, racial discrimination and race hatred, and its parochial gender politics... or let Daniel sail off into the sunset with the tiara, a lifetime supply of cortisone and AZT, and the Walther PPK, and give the series a loooooong damned rest, before it truly does become infantile, pointless, and embarrassing.
I say this as a white Canadian male who has actually toyed with writing and
submitting a Bond novel in the past. The character of 007 is not actually irrelevant... yet.
But we're getting there, boys. We're getting there.