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The future of 007 and the James Bond franchise as a whole has been a point of contention for years now, especially after the MGM library was absorbed by Amazon. After months of back-and-forth regarding the expansion plans for the IP, longtime Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are “stepping back from the creative process.”
The news dropped via Deadline, with both the producers and Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video’s Mike Hopkins confirming the new arrangement. “Amazon and the producers have formed a new venture to house the James Bond intellectual property rights”, he said, with Wilson and Broccoli remaining on board as co-owners of the franchise.
Of course, that amy well prove to be elaborate corpo talk for ‘We’ve trampled over the producers that were blocking the franchise from becoming another interchangeable property we can mine to death’. In late 2024, it was reported that Broccoli even went as far as to call Amazon’s execs “f**king idiots,” which suggests difficult conversations concerning the future of not only the next James Bond, but also potential spinoffs movies and/or shows had been happening for a while.
“Insiders add that no decisions have been made on the future Bond films including who will star, direct or write the next film,” Deadline wrote. Of course, getting a new Bond movie off the ground (something that Broccoli and Wilson were interested in doing in the near future) should be the priority, as No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s final outing as the iconic British spy, was released in late 2021 and will turn four this year. Even if a writing and directing team was locked this year, Amazon would be looking at a 2027 release at the earliest.
“With the conclusion of No Time to Die and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects,” said Broccoli at the end of her comments. If you can read between the lines, she sounds well aware that a major plundering will now begin. There have been rumblings in the past of Amazon being interested in spinoffs based on other characters from the ‘Bond mythos’ (since everything must be considered a universe now) and even prequel shows. Broccoli and Wilson, on the other hand, always pushed for Bond to remain a theatrical ‘event’ movie series.
While excitement surrounding a new James Bond and the respective rebooted movie saga remains high no matter what, fans will understandably be more cautious moving forward as Amazon looks for new ways to mine the series for quick profits, and the initial reactions online to this major Hollywood development are anything but positive.
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