Daniel Craig once made an interesting observation.
When he was first cast as James Bond, he played a far more gritty and cold version of the secret agent than what the audiences were used to in his previous, more suave version. And Craig said you shouldn’t blame him, or the directors, but comedian Mike Myers…
Mike Myers had so successfully spoofed and mocked the Bond franchise in his Austin Powers film series that every little cliche, every flirty one-liner and every outlandish gadget used by Craig’s predecessors now seemed outdated, corny and awful. The studios were forced to completely change the character, because the charming double agent trope just didn’t work anymore in its original format. It had become trite, banal, and outdated…
You know when you made the perfect parody film when the original franchise you were lovingly making fun of is still producing new films and is forced to reinvent itself entirely. The Austin Powers films were the perfect parody films.