James Bond is in danger of turning into a soulless franchise
James Bond, the British icon, is losing his creative home. Barbara Broccoli is handing creative control over 007 to Amazon, a streaming giant that produces content for algorithms. Is Bond facing his biggest identity crisis yet?
James Bond isn’t just the most famous secret agent in the world. He’s a legend. An institution as deeply rooted in the British psyche as the late Queen, afternoon tea and Mr. Bean. For decades, the balance between tradition and modernity was maintained by a single constant: the Broccoli family.
The legendary Albert «Cubby» Broccoli was the one who made James Bond a worldwide phenomenon in the 1960s. Now, the very thing that his daughter Barbara Broccoli has always wanted to prevent has happened.
Creative control over James Bond has been transferred to a major corporation. As confirmed by a range of news outlets, including The Verge and Variety, Amazon has now taken the reins.
A shock development.
A forced exit
There’s been disquiet behind the scenes of the franchise since the release of James Bond: No Time to Die. The trouble started almost four years ago when Amazon took over traditional studio MGM, allowing the e-commerce giant to secure numerous licences for films and TV shows. These included The Hobbit, Rocky, Creed – and James Bond.
Part of the deal, however, was that the Broccoli family would retain half of the creative rights to James Bond. And since the Broccolis and Amazon were unable to agree on how to continue the spy franchise, production of the upcoming film ground to a standstill. As recently as December 2024, [Barbara Broccoli slammed] (https://www.wsj.com/business/media/james-bond-movies-amazon-barbara-broccoli-0b04f0db) Amazon as «f*ing idiots» for allegedly not understanding Bond.
Now, two months later, Broccoli’s relinquishing creative control – quietly, without a fuss, without expressing any opposition publicly. The whole thing reeks of a behind-the-scenes power struggle that Broccoli eventually lost. There may even have been pressure from Amazon in the form of «either you work with us, or we’ll make James Bond without you.» The Broccoli family likely opted for a dignified withdrawal so that they could at least retain their financial stakes. There was no grand farewell, no combative final word; just a matter-of-fact statement that they were «devoting themselves to other projects».
That sounds more like bowing out silently than «voluntarily» handing over the reins.
This has ruffled my feathers a bit. Not because I’m worried Bond won’t survive under a US company. After all, «Cubby» Broccoli was American too. But he understood Bond. He never made the films look like Hollywood blockbusters, choosing instead to keep them as a British prestige project. His daughter, who grew up in England, then continued that tradition.
Whether Amazon will understand and respect that heritage seems doubtful, to say the least. There’s a danger that 007 will turn into an ultra-polished, data-driven Prime product driven by fleeting trends.
Looming loss of identity
This is exactly what Barbara Broccoli’s been resisting for years. We’ve never had a Bond spin-off, a soulless series made for streaming, or algorithmic decisions about what Bond should be like. Or who Bond should be. Bond was cinema. Bond was an event. Now, the franchise lies firmly in the hands of a corporation whose home market isn’t cinema, but online retail. We saw with Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power how that can turn out.
Let’s see whether Amazon truly understands the product it’s got its hands on. James Bond isn’t just an action hero. He never was. Not even when he was «just» a character in Ian Fleming’s books. Fleming, himself a former intelligence officer in the British Royal Navy, always portrayed his agent as a projection of British strength at a time when the Empire was crumbling and Britain was forced to redefine its place in the world.
Bond is a relic of that era – a different time. And that’s exactly what his strength is. He’s been repeatedly reinvented, moving away from the «sexist, misogynist dinosaur» from the early films. But not just for nothing. Even Daniel Craig managed to bring an introspective, modern version of Bond to the silver screen without destroying his essence.
With creative control now in the hands of Amazon bigwigs, Bond’s in danger of losing the very identity that made him unique. Who knows? Maybe we’re just an Amazon press release away from Bond officially becoming the JBCU, the James Bond Cinematic Universe.
The Marvelisation of Bond
Are my concerns too far-fetched? I don’t think so. Marvel, too, was once the untouchable franchise par excellence. Today, the brand’s a shell of its former glory, as Disney’s gradually turned the Marvel Cinematic Universe into an assembly line product. There are too many films, too many series and too much irrelevant content designed to psyche audiences up for the next big event rather than tell good stories.
Bond might be facing the same fate. Rather than the triumphant end result of a years-long planning process, a Bond film might become just another brick in a wall of content.
Let’s face it, Amazon won’t just continue Bond. It’ll «optimise» Bond. At least, that’s what I think will happen. Optimisation in streaming terms means more content, more spin-offs and quantity over quality. Maybe there’ll be a Bond series about M or Q. Or perhaps a show revolving around the young Bond for the global streaming market. Maybe, since the «hard» Bond doesn’t do as well in some markets, there’ll be a lighter, family-friendly version.
If that happens, Bond won’t just be made for the silver screen. It’ll be made for the Prime home page and the Prime algorithm. The very thing Barbara Broccoli’s been protecting us from for years.
Header image: MGM / Amazon Prime Video
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Luca Fontana
Senior Editor
Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.chI'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.»
