I knew the franchise would follow the road of wokism, that a nonwhite would take the leading character, but my bet was on a Muslim or brown guy in general, Middle Eastern. The woke industry has no patience or scruples. Ian Fleming won’t Rest in Peace.
I don't EVER want to hear ANYONE complain about cultural appropriation ever again!! This HALLOWEEN you are allowed to dress up as anything your hearts desire.
The usual line is 'Ah, but you see being black is an essential part of who that character is!' Which it may well often be; but you hear that every time, it never works the other way round.
If you break down the plot of the original Shaft to the basic components being black (or any race) is not essential. At the simplest level the story is David vs. Goliath.
The "giant" Italian mob challenges the "smaller" Harlem mob by kidnapping the boss's daughter over a slight (I have forgotten the reason). The smaller mob sends in their champion, Shaft/David who defeats the giant mob.
This is a story we have read, heard, and seen many times in different variations. The real reason Shaft and the smaller mob are black is because the producers wanted to make a Blaxploitation film (i.e. money). You could argue the times being the 70's are a factor.
Ian Fleming created Bond as a white spy because in the times (50's/60's) a spy posing as an upper-crust English businessman would have been white.
A modern interpretation of either character could be any race. The world has changed tremendously since the 50's/60's/70's.
What is the necessity to make Bond non-white (or Shaft non-black)? Why not create an ORIGINAL black super spy in the Bond tradition?
The XXX series was an unsuccessful attempt, but why not try again?
On a side note, the character Shaft and the two Shaft novels were written by a white man. The screenplay was written by the novel author and another white man.