51 years ago, a James Bond movies from Dr. No to 1971's Diamonds Are Forever.

Sean Connery grew tired of the role of James Bond after 1965's Thunderball and the Scottish leading man decided to quit the iconic role he pioneered during production of 1967's You Only Live Twice. Producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman chose Australian model George Lazenby to replace Connery in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service. However, Lazenby couldn't adequately fill Conney's tuxedo, and George also decided playing 007 wasn't for him. After Connery returned for one more Bond movie, Roger Moore finally stepped in as 007. This new James Bond turned out to be a significant reinvention of Sean Connery's 007 formula.

Roger Moore’s Live And Let Die Is A More Radical James Bond Reboot Than Daniel Craig’s

Live And Let Die Was Very Different From Sean Connery's Bond Movies By Design

Roger Moore's inaugural James Bond movie, Live and Let Die, is almost nothing like Sean Connery's 007 movies. Although Connery, George Lazenby, and Moore all ostensibly played the same James Bond character in a continuous canon, Roger was a departure from Sean in numerous ways, by design. Moore neither looked nor acted like Connery, and producers decided to abandon much of Sean's 007 iconography. For instance, Moore's Bond smoked cigars instead of cigarettes, carried a .44 Magnum as well as a Walther PPK, and Roger's 007 did not order a vodka martini, shaken, not stirred.

Roger Moore James Bond Live and let die moonraker
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Roger Moore was a new James Bond for a new decade, and Live and Let Die eschewed the 1960s elegance of Sean Connery's James Bond to delve into the 1970s' blaxploitation genre. Live and Let Die had pimpmobiles, voodoo, and a nearly all-Black slew of villains, not counting Jane Seymour's virginal psychic, Solitaire. Paul McCartney and Wings delivered the first rock 007 movie theme, "Live and Let Die," which is a shock given the disdain for The Beatles Sean Connery's Bond stated in 1964's Goldfinger. It's simply hard to imagine Sean Connery starring in Live and Let Die instead of Roger Moore.

How Live And Let Die Compares To Casino Royale

Both Films Are Based On Ian Fleming's First Two James Bond Novels

Live and Let Die can be considered a soft reboot of James Bond as opposed to the total revamp Casino Royale was. Both films are adaptations of Ian Fleming's "Casino Royale" and "Live and Let Die," the first two novels penned by James Bond's creator. The film Live and Let Die continued the adventures of James Bond that began in Dr. No, and Moore's 007 gradually acknowledged his shared past with Connery in subsequent Bond movies. Yet Live and Let Die was also designed as a jumping-on point for audiences requiring no prior knowledge of Sean Connery's James Bond.

Roger Moore was the longest-serving James Bond with 7 films from 1973-1985 until he was displaced by Daniel Craig, who starred in 5 James Bond movies from 2006-2021.

Due to issues with the novel's film rights, Casino Royale wasn't adapted as the first James Bond movie in the early 1960s, but the long-awaited adaptation kicked off Daniel Craig's new James Bond canon in 2006. Casino Royale is a total reboot, depicting the origin of Daniel Craig's younger James Bond and how he earned his Double-O status and license to kill. Audiences watched the step-by-step evolution of the gritty and more emotionally vulnerable Craig into the more refined James Bond. Following the successes of both Live and Let Die and Casino Royale, the James Bond franchise was reignited, finding new audiences, and setting box office records.

Live And Let Die Was Controversial But Successful

Roger Moore's First 007 Movie Outperformed Connery's Last

Roger Moore's first outing as James Bond didn't have the instant iconic impact Sean Connery had in Dr. No, and it wasn't until Roger's third Bond, 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me, that Moore perfected the formula for his 007. However, Live and Let Die was a box office success, earning $126.4 million worldwide, an upward trend from the $116 million grossed by Sean Connery's final 007 movie, Diamonds Are Forever. Yet despite being a total reboot, Casino Royale has more of James Bond's recognizable tropes and iconography than Live and Let Die does.

Live and Let Die can be a tough watch for modern audiences.

Live and Let Die is no sympathetic or progressive portrayal of Black culture, and its portrayal of bumbling Sheriff J.W. Pepper (Clifton James) is also offensive. The villain is a drug-smuggling Caribbean Prime Minister named Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto), who doubles as the jive-talking Mr. Big. Live and Let Die portrays voodoo culture in an exploitative boogeyman fashion. For the first time, James Bond beds an African-American woman, Rosie Carver (Gloria Hendry), but her CIA agent is a superstitious traitor who soon gets herself killed. Live and Let Die can be a tough watch for modern audiences, yet it's also fascinating to see what a James Bond movie got away with in 1973.

James Bond Will Likely Be Rebooted Again

Will Bond 26 Be As Successful As Live And Let Die Or Casino Royale?

Daniel Craig as James Bond looking up in No Time To Die

1987's The Living Daylights and 1995's GoldenEye also introduced new actors as James Bond - Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, respectively - but their inaugural Bond movies weren't the reinventions Live and Let Die and Casino Royale were. The Living Daylights was a very 1980s Cold War spy picture, while GoldenEye introduced James Bond to the excesses of 1990s movie blockbusters. However, Brosnan's fourth and final Bond, 2002's Die Another Day, pushed the 007 formula too far into the realm of a live-action cartoon, which led to Daniel Craig's back-to-basics reboot.

Daniel Craig bond movies ranked best to worst Casino royale spectre skyfall no time to die
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The James Bond franchise is now in a quandary about what to do following the end of Daniel Craig's era. Craig was a phenomenally successful and popular 007, and Daniel turned Bond into a billion-dollar-grossing franchise. However, No Time To Die ended with the death of Craig's secret agent, closing the book on his version of James Bond and the canon of his five 007 movies. Barring Bond 26 picking up the original 007 continuity that ended with Die Another Day, the next James Bond will very likely kick off a third original timeline by rebooting Ian Fleming's secret agent once more.