Brian Cox shares his thoughts on modernizing James Bond, “We don’t muck around with Shakespeare”

The name’s Cox, Brian Cox. He’s the Emmy-nominated star of HBO’s hit show Succession and the soothing voice of McDonald’s advertisements. While Cox voices the poetic narration of eating french fries for the double arches, he is also voicing his point-of-view on the perceived antiquated nature of Ian Fleming’s 007 James Bond. Cox enters the world of the MI6 agent with his new reality competition show, 007: Road to a Million. Much like Christopher Nolan, James Bond played an important role in Brian Cox’s life and he feels passionately about the character.

BingeHulu recently reported on Cox’s recent interview with RadioTimes for the October-November issue in which Cox talks about his new show. When considering the notion of modernizing Bond for a more politically correct time, the blunt and outspoken star of Succession shared his thoughts when reflecting on Daniel Craig’s recent incarnation. “(Daniel Craig) inhabited Bond brilliantly. But lately I’ve been looking back at the Bond films from the 60s onwards, which has been wonderful. They have a style that was really endearing and mapped a particular period of my life.”

Cox thinks modern audiences should be able to embrace the past versions of the character, “Yeah, I think that’s okay because the only way we can understand who we are is by acknowledging our history. Look what’s happening in the world today: if we had a real sense of who we are, we wouldn’t have had the idiotic clown from Eton [Boris Johnson] or the Pink Pinocchio [Donald Trump] or Borsch and Tears [Vladimir Putin]. People have disclaimers now on some older programming which is fine, but at the same time, it’s a wonderful tradition that we try to carry on. We don’t muck around with Shakespeare; we shouldn’t muck around with James Bond.”

Even as far back as 1995’s GoldenEye with Pierce Brosnan’s debut as the 007 agent, the film acknowledged the character’s past nature with Dame Judy Dench as the new M remarking to Bond, “I think you’re a sexist, misogynist dinosaur. A relic of the Cold War, whose boyish charms, though wasted on me, obviously appealed to that young woman I sent out to evaluate you.” Currently, producer Barbara Broccoli and EON Productions is brainstorming what the future holds for the property after Craig’s departure. An interesting idea once came in a now debunked rumor where longtime fan, Christopher Nolan, would direct a period film with a younger Bond.