For the past 57 years homo sapiens have been dominating the James Bond role and it started in a time when there were no opportunities for a Felis Catus to start in a major motion picture. It's time that James Bond broke the species barrier to show everyone that order carnivora is able to play the role just as well as a homo sapien.
I don't care enough about Bond to be really invested in this debate but from a purely practical viewpoint, I don't think the Bond franchise would be changed if the producers didn't have reason to believe that the series needs rejuvenation to stay relevant. At the end of the day, it's all about making money for them, and I can't accept that they would make changes simply to pander to liberal ideals if they didn't think it would boost audience attendance.
The best parallel I can draw is the recent casting of a female actor in the role of Doctor Who. The internet practically exploded in outrage at the news (and still is, in some corners) and the amount of fans crying that it was the death of the series was not unlike what I'm reading about Bond on these boards. Exactly the same arguments in fact. But what happened there? The series gained renewed interest, the ratings went up, and in the end it probably saved the series from cancellation. The producers got exactly what they wanted, and no matter how much long term fans moaned and threatened boycott and trashed every episode online, the show survived. I bet Bond will too.
Dr Who: S11 had a lot more viewers, especially episodes 1&3. But the average imdb rating for S10 is 2*s higher.
Basically the BBC promoted Jolly Jody as Dr Woke. Young viewers came on board, they could not relate to 60 year-old white guys like the original doctors.
Nah man, David Tennant was no 60 year old white guy, and Matt Smith was practically still in diapers when he played the Doctor a few years ago. Plus the companion has always been there to draw in the younger crowd.
But yes, we agree that casting Jodie was a calculated move to increase the ratings. And it worked, despite the amount of people who bother to jump on the internet and give a bad wrap on imdb.
"Relevant"? James Bond movies aren't teachable moments or social commentary. All they need to be is entertaining, and the template for that was very nicely established in the '60s and '70s.
Bond has been slowly dying for a few decades. Fortunately we'll always have the Connery/Lazenby/Moore films.