Have no fear, James Bonds (plural) are here! Far from a ‘straight’ take on a Bond story, the ‘67 Casino Royale is much maligned. But in many ways, it’s well ahead of its time. Whether by accident or design, it’s a experience which is not merely open to queer readings, but warmly welcomes them in. Leave at the door your pre-conceptions about what ‘James Bond’ is or isn’t and prepare to join what the original trailers called “the Casino Royale fun movement”.

Wint and Kidd are some of the most ‘problematic’ characters in the Bond series - but I’ve loved them since setting eyes on them in Diamonds Are Forever, when I was aged eight. In an effort to work out the root of my unhealthy obsession, I decided to re-read Fleming’s novel and ended up with more questions than answers. Are they even gay? Why is one of them nicknamed ‘Boofy’? And what does my attraction to such horrible characters reveal about me?

By 1964, Bond had found a large audience despite the character’s sexual politics breaking with traditional views on premarital sex and monogamy. In both Dr No and From Russia With Love, Bond had used sex to manipulate women for his own ends, whilst taking his own pleasure in them. Jon Burn explores what happened next, when 007 faced off against his foe Goldfinger, causing James Bond to enter a considerably less heteronormative and more ‘perverse’ world than he had ever encountered before. 

It turns out I’m not alone in being obsessed with Ben Whishaw’s incarnation of Q. Plenty of queer Bond fans have taken the lovable nerd to their hearts since he first appeared on screen in Skyfall. But does that mean the character himself is queer? And what would it mean if he was to come out in No Time To Die?

Traversing the ever-changing world of 1973, Bond finds himself a fish out of water (alligator out of a swamp?), opposing villains undergoing their own crises of identity. For once, being a white straight guy might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

If your real life feels like a story that’s already written, what do you do when you don’t like what you’re reading? Do you take control or surrender? Brosnan’s fairytale adventure arrived at an interesting time in my life…

In this tribute to the late Diana Rigg, Sam Rogers compares the way Tracy Bond is presented in the book and the film of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and asks: “Why does Tracy resonate with me and many other fans? And how do her own triumphs and tribulations correlate with the queer community, and gay men in particular?”

What might the delay of No Time To Die mean for the future of film-going in general, and individuals like me who depend on the cinema to shine a light into our lives when things go dark? I take a look back at my own experiences of seeing Bond on the big screen, how a re-release of From Russia With Love helped me realise my boyfriend (now husband) was ‘a keeper’ and why I’m both angry and relieved about the delay.

How many of the Bond songs strike a queer chord? The answer, when I asked Licence To Queer readers, turned out to be ‘quite a few’! Here I reveal my own favourites alongside your top selections.

James Bond might not, at first glance, appear to be the most likely LGBTQ+ icon, but queer people around the globe are drawn to him. A queer fan from the Netherlands actually draws him. In their new work, they take a classic Bond look and add a recently-updated icon: the more inclusive pride flag.

‘What makes you think this is my first time?’ Bond asks Silva, who’s got him tied to a chair and is running his hands up his thighs. And a legion of queer Bond fans cheers – quietly, so as not to disturb the rest of the cinema. Let’s be real: Silva wasn’t the only one who assumed that this was the first time. Kathleen Jowitt explores Bond’s bisexuality.