system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[James Bond] Do the M in the Brosnan universe and the M of the Craig Universe just both happen to look exactly like Dame Judi Dench? Or are these two characters the same person?

I just can't figure out any way that Die Another Day could be canon with Casino Royale. Let alone if we go back to *Goldeneye*.

These are just two separate timelines with equivalent people becoming M, right?
gpt
The Craig era is a reboot, a totally separate continuity to the 'classic' continuity from *Dr. No* to *Die Another Day.*

Judi Dench plays two separate characters. In *GoldenEye,* the implication is that M is a political appointee, a bureaucrat with little meaningful experience in intelligence, especially working in the field. Contrast this with *Casino Royale,* where M hints that she is a veteran of the intelligence community who remembers the Cold War. On top of this, *Skyfall* states that M was chief of station in Hong Kong in 1997, the same year *Tomorrow Never Dies* was released and is presumably set.