James Bond gets major overhaul in new announcement

The news has just broken that paints a picture for the future of the James Bond franchise, possibly paving the way for some monumental changes.

According to the Twitter account, DiscussingFilm, it appears that Amazon now has a large share of the creative control for the James Bond IP.

Daniel Craig won't be the next Bond, but Amazon will choose his replacement soon

This is part of a “joint venture deal” that will see the company “officially gain creative control.”

What this means for the character, and indeed the whole franchise, is uncertain.

The news continues that, “Michael G. Wilson & Barbara Broccoli will remain co-owners of Bond but are stepping back to focus on other projects.”

It’s an interesting turn of events - the franchise has been pretty dormant since the last appearance of Daniel Craig in the role, and aside from the usual ongoing rumours as to who will play James Bond next, we’ve heard little else.

While I don’t have an enthusiastic love for the films, I am someone who grew up with them always being on the TV, usually as part of a Bank Holiday.

The fear, with Amazon taking control, is that the series becomes watered down beyond the bombastic action films they’ve always been, and becomes a ‘universe’ for the streamer.

We’ve seen it happen with The Lord of the Rings, with The Rings of Power being one of the most expensive shows of all-time, yet unable to deliver anything that manages to please fans of that franchise.

This is something that is becoming apparent for all popular culture IP, Disney is doing it with Marvel and Star Wars, so will Amazon just end up pushing out adjacent projects, simply tied into the Bond franchise?

Are we going to get the younger years of ‘M’ or ‘Q’ or some other tangential character?

The first reply in the tweet thread wonders this, saying, “Random streaming shows set in the James Bond universe without Bond himself incoming.”

As another fan says, “This is terrible news because Barbara was the only one who was keeping Amazon away from turning 007 into a cinematic universe.”

I’m not begging for a new Bond film to fly into the cinema any time soon, there are plenty of other action franchises worthy of attention, but this news has me worried that sooner rather than later, all pop culture IP will just be churned out into ongoing universes, rather than standalone projects.