Every Version of James Bond Who Appears In 1967 Spoof Casino Royale
The wacky comedy and James Bond spoof Casino Royale, released in 1967, features several versions of the iconic character. Unlike its more critically successful 2006 main continuity namesake starring Daniel Craig, Casino Royale parodies the character and the franchise’s conventions. Just five years after the film series launched with Dr. No and decades before Austin Powers, Casino Royale introduced audiences to the humorous side of the spy movie and Cold War espionage in a surrealist comedic style. The film is marked by mayhem and excess, shown most overtly by it giving its audience not just one Bond, but eight of them.
Born out of having both the rights to Ian Fleming’s 1953 novel and an acceptance of the impossibility of competing with the main series, Charles K. Feldman produced Casino Royale, which also prevented Sean Connery's Bond from featuring in a cinematic adaptation of the first Bond novel. A who’s who of contemporary A-listers — Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Ursula Andress, and David Niven — all have the chance to play 007 due to the film’s absurd plot. To combat SMERSH, a rogue counterintelligence organization that has been eliminating spies, MI5 seek to confuse them by renaming all remaining agents «James Bond 007.»
Related: James Bond: Casino Royale 1967 Cast & Character Guide
Each version of James Bond 007 has their own bizarre origin and distinct rendering of the character. Casino Royale may be comedically and cinematically dated, however, it shows the diversity of different directions in which the character can be taken. In this uncertain era for the franchise - amid the passing of the gauntlet from Craig — it is an apt time to revisit this eccentric, and often overlooked, piece of Bond history and explore
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