What will Amazon do with James Bond?
The closing credits of 2021’s No Time To Die, the most recent film in the 007 series, ended with a familiar message: “James Bond will return.”
But for the last few years, fans haven’t been so sure.
A year after the release of Daniel Craig’s final film in the franchise, Amazon bought the series’ parent company MGM. Since then, very little has happened.
That finally changed on Thursday, when Amazon announced a new deal that would see long-term Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson step back, and Jeff Bezos’s company take full creative control.
In the intervening years, it’s been widely reported that there was tension between Amazon, who understandably wanted a return on their investment, and Wilson and Broccoli, whose top priority remained protecting the Bond brand.
The news of the deal has been met with mixed reaction from 007 fans.
“I’m in two minds,” says David Zaritsky, creator of The Bond Experience fan channel on YouTube and Instagram.
“The nostalgic part of my mind feels a little bit of sadness. Broccoli and Wilson have been the custodians for all these years, so it feels like a bit of royal blood in lineage has been severed.
“That being said, nobody likes inactivity. And there’s been a lot of inactivity around the James Bond franchise for many years, and I know that Amazon as a company will not have patience for inactivity.
“So I’m very hopeful, and dare I say even a little bit excited, that they’re going to do something with the franchise that will be interesting nonetheless.”
Other franchises which have drastically expanded perhaps offer some clues about what we can expect from the forthcoming Amazon era of Bond.
Lancelot Narayan, a James Bond historian, journalist and filmmaker, told BBC Radio 5 Live a good comparison is George Lucas selling Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012, giving the company control of the Star Wars brand.
“They went off and made that sequel trilogy, and whether you like it or not, it got made rather quickly,” he notes. “There wasn’t a three-year wait between films.”
However, despite the explosion in productivity, there is a feeling that both Marvel and Star Wars have overstretched themselves with their spin-off products.
Narayan says he believes Star Wars has become “creatively redundant” since the explosion in productivity.
“The Star Wars TV series have been very hit and miss – Andor is fantastic, The Mandalorian is OK, I haven’t seen Skeleton Crew… but there are very disparate creative voices going on there,” he notes. “So this is the worry, you need the correct creative people to run the show.”
Similarly, the Marvel Cinematic Universe built on the films by launching a string of Disney+ TV shows.
The subsequent decline in Marvel’s popularity arguably owes much to fan fatigue, something which won’t have been helped by the huge number of story strands they had to keep up with.
Both cases, Marvel and Star Wars, highlight the risks of brand expansion, which can cause long-term damage for short-term financial gain.
Fans will be hoping any Bond extensions will be better than 2023’s dubious game show 007: Road to a Million, hosted by Succession’s Brian Cox, which was poorly received.
The James Bond franchise, and particularly the subject of which actor will take over from Craig, is of such fascination to the public that it’s the focus of a new show currently playing in Cirencester, called A Role To Die For.
“There are a lot of people who have grown up with it, for whom James Bond has been part of their culture their entire lives,” says the appropriately named Derek Bond, who directs the show.
“As time has gone on, being able to reinvent that character and have him perhaps change with the times, has been the secret to his longevity.
“But I wonder if we’re now in a situation where the times have changed so much, that James Bond now feels as if he belongs in a different era, and it needs something really radical to keep him relevant today.”
Character origin stories
One area the company will almost certainly be looking at now they’re in creative control is the potential for character origin stories, in a similar vein to other famous and beloved film characters who have received their own spin-off films.
Cruella, an extension of the 101 Dalmatians villain, and Wonka, of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, have both been hugely successful film spin-offs in their own right in the last five years, with Emma Stone and Timothée Chalamet respectively bringing the characters and worlds to a whole new audience.
It’s not hard to imagine the popularity of a similar film or show based on famous Bond villains such as Jaws, Oddjob, Blofeld, Goldfinger or May Day – all big brands in their own right.
“I mean, why has nobody made Moneypenny?!” laughs Derek Bond. “There’s a great series to made about her and her journey.
“Also M, I’d love to know how Judi Dench’s M ended up in that role. And the villains especially, it’s a very rich universe, and it’s easy to imagine the Marvelisation of it, where you have a kind of spin-off for every character that James Bond ever passed in a corridor.”
But Zaritsky notes: “I think Amazon will stop short of doing it ad nauseum, to the point where they’re having spin-offs about the MI6 janitor that sleeps in the corner. If they do have spin-offs, I think it’s going to be prime characters.”
Not everyone is a fan of the idea. “This is quite possibly the WORST thing to happen to this franchise,” tweeted Griffin Schiller of Film Speak after Amazon’s announcement.
“James Bond was more than your average franchise. It had class, prestige, they were indie films made as blockbusters… now? It’ll be milked dry. It’s truly the end.”
Broccoli has been seen as a steward of the brand throughout her tenure; a safe pair of hands who protected the traditions of the original character.
That may not necessarily have been compatible with Amazon, who were presumably looking to buy a brand rather than only a film franchise, in an effort to maximise profit.
“It does tend to be a slightly older generation that it skews to, and there’s a whole generation of people who have not experienced a James Bond film, and now, I wonder if they will,” Bond says.
In her own tenure, Broccoli has made efforts to keep attracting young audiences in other ways, however, such as selecting popular young artists such as Billie Eilish to sing the theme songs.
A repositioning of of the brand could see Amazon try to take the franchise in a direction that appeals more to a younger audience as well as an American market, which is culturally slightly cooler on the Bond brand than the UK.
“I think it’s quite bad news for the franchise, and British film as a whole,” movie journalist Hannah Strong told Radio 4’s PM following Amazon’s announcement.
“It’s the premier British film property, and I think the control reverting to an American company, not least one that hasn’t shown that much commitment to great cinema, is probably quite a worrying sign.”
That said, Amazon will be aware that Bond makes a huge amount of money as it currently is – and that altering the core product itself in a way that appeals more to an American audience would be a huge risk.
Strong added: “When Amazon bought MGM, Barbara Broccoli was quite outspoken about the fact she was finding it difficult to come to a middle ground with Amazon. I suspect the middle ground involves an awful lot of money.”
The biggest decision remains who will replace Craig in the leading role.
Broccoli previously said James Bond could be any race, but that he would remain male. That guarantee may no longer stand now she is has handed over the reins, although her approach was widely regarded as sensible and Amazon are unlikely to rock the boat too much.
How long could it be until we see the first new Bond product? Zaritsky suggests Amazon won’t wait around, although the first thing to launch may not be a film.
“It could be with merchandise, or in the form of fan outreach,” he says. “Whatever it is, I think we might see something extremely fast.”
