The James Bond franchise has experienced a seismic change with the announcement that Barbara Broccoli has given up creative control to Amazon. The franchise has gone from being a personal legacy for the Broccolis to being a part of a corporate entity. The news has been received badly by Bond fans, including myself. There are actions that Amazon are likely to take, and actions they should take.
No Time to Die spelt the end of an era. It ended Daniel Craig’s tenure with the controversial decision to kill James Bond. It divided fans: I was against it because it felt like a move done for shock value, risked focusing Bond down a story cul-de-sac, and the idea of Bond being forced to make a personal sacrifice could have been achieved without needing to kill him. This meant that Bond 26 had to be a reboot and EON was struggling to produce the film. There was a lack of information from EON since there was no director, casting, or script.
The Wall Street Journal published an explosive article in December 2024. They reported a rift between Broccoli and Amazon Executives. Broccoli is a traditionalist who values the theatrical experience, and Amazon is a streamer. When Broccoli met with Jennifer Salke, the head of Amazon MGM Studios she wanted to discuss potential spin-offs and TV shows and described James Bond as ‘content,’ a word that cheapens the property. Broccoli’s friends have said that word is ‘death knell’ and she described Amazon Executives as “fucking idiots.” One Amazon employee said in a meeting “I have to be honest I don’t think James Bond is a hero.” leading to the room going silent. I personally find it a bit rich considering Amazon’s reputation for tax dodging, union busting, and poor treatment of workers.
The rifts also extended to the creative direction of Bond. These involve casting and story. Broccoli states Bond should be British and Male. Amazon suggested that the film’s villain could be a stateless billionaire and Broccoli pointed out that Bond has faced them before. It’s also ironic Amazon would pitch this idea considering Jeff Bezos seems to be on a mission to be a real Dr. Evil and has been cosying up with Donald Trump and other megalomanic billionaires. It wouldn’t be surprising if an Amazon Bond film would make out billionaires are misunderstood inventors who create jobs and economic growth for the betterment of society.
To break the impasse Amazon ended up paying $1 Billion to gain creative control. It seems like a case that Amazon had worn Broccoli down and she decided to take the money and run. That’s the analysis of Debbie McWilliams, the long-time casting director for the series who has recently retired because of Amazon’s buyout. She said “I am sad to see the end of this era but totally understand why it has happened. Producing a Bond film takes at least two years of their lives with little time for anything else. And with Michael retiring I think Barbara did not have the appetite to shoulder the burden alone. She has so many other interests, especially with her theatre projects.”
This buyout feels similar to what happened when Disney brought Marvel and Lucasfilm where a load of popular properties would have the backing of a major corporation. However, there is no excitement for the Bond purchase like there was for Marvel and Lucasfilm at Disney.
The big worry is Amazon is planning to strip mine James Bond for ‘content’ and dimmish the brand. 007: Road to a Million is a warning sign since it tried to make a reality competition TV series based on the Bond property and it was met with terrible reviews. The philosophy is ‘content is king’ since audiences are drawn to franchises, but Amazon seems to be far behind its competitors. Disney made loads of MCU and Star Wars spin-off shows to promote Disney+ and gain subscribers, but those brands have been diminished by oversaturation. Marvel has admitted they made a mistake because quantity came before quality and they plan to scale back on the number of projects. Star Wars has been in streaming purgatory since Lucasfilm keeps announcing and cancelling film projects.
Amazon seems to be far behind its competitors when trying to create a cinematic universe. Many studios saw the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and tried to copy it. However, for every MonsterVerse there has been a Dark Universe to counteract it.
Bond fans are not crying out for spin-off media. There’s no demand for a Blofeld origins story or a spin-off about Q making wacky inventions. It feels like Sony’s attempt to make a cinematic universe based on Spider-man’s rogue galley, and that ended up flopping hard. Most of the films in the series critically demolished and outside the Venom movies, performed poorly at the box office to the point Sony unceremoniously cancelled the universe after Kraven the Hunter. The James Bond series doesn’t have a wide roster of characters nor is it a fantastical world like Star Wars that could make an extended universe viable.
Amazon’s record of adapting properties has been mixed. They have made some great shows like Invincible, Fallout, and Reacher, but their handling of Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time properties has been lambasted by fans.
The final worry is Amazon would use focus groups, algorithms, and fan reaction. Bezos has already been on Twitter asking fans who they would like to see play Bond. Who needs producers, casting directors, or screen tests? This is probably a stunt by Bezos, not a serious way to find a new Bond actor. McWilliams has been critical of Bezos, saying “If they mess with the essence of Bond, they risk alienating a huge audience. Choosing the actor to fill the role is a huge task and not one I would hand over to subscribers of X.” Amazon is a streamer and streamers have generally made projects based on the popularity of other things. They rarely take a risk. Streamers have turned into multi-billion dollar content farms.
There has also been a rise of rage-bait websites and YouTube channels that get attention and make money from outrage. They constantly complain about the state of franchises like Star Wars and the MCU, which has led studios to form fan committees so they could be consulted. The thing with Bond fans is that 10 individuals will come up with 10 different opinions. Some will say they want gritty, ground spy thrillers, others will say they want a throwback to the Roger Moore days, and there’s a vocal contingent who want the Bond series to become a period piece. It would be impossible to please all these groups all at once.
Whilst this article has been doom-and-gloom, one thing to remember is the Bond franchise is resilient. Its death has been called prematurely many times, from Sean Connery leaving, the failure of The Man With the Golden Gun, the end of the Cold War, and MGM’s constant financial woes. Adversity has often led to the Bond franchise coming out stronger, like The Spy Who Loved Me following The Man With the Golden Gun, the long hiatus between Licence to Kill to Goldeneye resulted in one of the greatest films in the franchise, and the negative reaction to Die Another Day led EON to production a fantastic reboot.
The franchise has adapted to an ever-changing cinematic and geo-political climate and it can do it again. That’s one of the strengths of the franchise: it’s adaptable and can remind contemporary. A lot is going on in the world that a future Bond film can draw from, such as the rise of shadowy forces trying to destroy democracy, the rise of a new Cold War and autocratic regimes, the race for rare resources, and China and Russia’s engaging in neo-colonialism in the developing world.
Even if No Time To Die didn’t end so conclusively a reboot/reinvention would still have been needed. The franchise did need to lighten up a bit and there has been a craving for some bigger plots. The Daniel Craig films did well with older audiences, but there is a need to get a new generation of viewers. The producers of Bond 26 would take some inspiration from the Mission: Impossible series so they have marketed themselves on their spectacle, action sequences, and stunt work. James Bond could reclaim his crown as the benchmark for action cinema. Bond as a character has the added benefit of his grey morality and the murky world he inhabits, leaving filmmakers a lot to work with.
If Amazon wants to reassure Bond fans they should recruit a producer who’s a big fan, or at least has a respect for the property. They definitely need to get a high-end director like Denis Villeneuve or Edgar Wright and give them a lot of creative freedom; another strength of Bond films is many of them are distinct from each other and Bond could stand in contrast to Disney’s assembly line style of filmmaking. Bond 26 will have to be as good as Goldeneye and Casino Royale (2006) to ensure success.
I am personally against spin-off films and TV, but after this deal spin-offs are inevitable. James Bond has survived bad spin-offs and unofficial films. Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again were released in the same year as official films and the official films still won out. Some ‘90s kids might have vague memories of the animated series James Bond Jr., a spin-off that has faded into obscurity. EON did plan to make a spin-off film about Jinx, Halle Berry’s character in Die Another Day, and hire a director and cast some actors before the project was cancelled.
If spin-offs must be made, they should be treated as Elseworld stories, like the Robert Pattinson’s Batman movies being separate from the DCU. The likely spin-off candidates would be adaptations of the Young Bond and a period-set Bond series. Young Bond has been popular and well-received and could act as a gateway for younger audiences. It could be a live-action series marketed towards the young adult audience. Whilst a period-set Bond series could appeal to literary Bond who wants to see the character in the period Fleming originally published the novels.
The Bond franchise has appeared in many forms of media and Amazon could keep the brand alive without affecting the movies. I grew up in the golden age of Bond games (from Goldeneye to Everything or Nothing) and many Bond fans would love to play a new big-budget game where they get to play as 007. The Wizarding World franchise got a boost when Hogwarts Legacy was released and Bond could follow a similar model.
Many writers have continued the novels after Ian Fleming’s death, including big-name authors like Sebastian Faulks (Birdsong) and Anthony Horowitz (Alex Rider). Amazon owns Audible and they could adapt many of the Bond books as audio plays, like they did with Alien III based on William Gibson’s screenplay, and a starred-studded adaptation of 1984.
To most people, they probably don’t care that much about the ownership of the Bond property. They just want a good piece of entertainment. If Amazon were smart, they would manage the property carefully by making a film once every three years and supplementing it with a TV series, video games, or comics. But Hollywood and Tech Company will probably milk properties dry. I hope for the best, but I’m prepared for the worst.
