Judi DenchRemember when Judi Dench was cast as M in GoldenEye, and everyone thought it was a really great sign of how men no longer rule the world? And how women had finally reached equality, even in the misogynistic Bond universe? Well, based on the latest Casino Royale casting news - Dench is back as M - things in Bond-land were never really that bad to begin with. It turns out that M was a chick way back in the day, even when James himself was a young lad of 37 28.

While I personally love both Dench and her character in the Bond films, her presence here makes no sense whatsoever. In this theoretical introduction to the James Bond we've all come to know and love, how on earth are they going to explain the presence of an older woman in a position of authority? The only (really sad) possible answer I can think of is that she'll somehow screw Bond over so severely that he is forced to spend the next 30-odd year treating women primarily as objects. Well, either that or they can just pretend it's not remotely odd - you know, kind of like how they're going to handle how old James looks.