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What killed James Bond for good? The answer might be ill-will between Amazon and character's longtime co-owners

Amazon has tried ordering a James Bond movie for three years, but co-owner keeps saying 'no' according to reports

Published on Fri Dec 20 2024

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Despite his seeming death in No Time to Die, the closing credits of that 2021 movie promised “James Bond will return.” More than three years later, with no new Bond movie in development, it’s beginning to look as if that caption was wishful thinking more than an official announcement, so what happened? Simply put, war between the two parties who could bring Bond back to life.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that relations between producer Barbara Broccoli — whose Eon Productions is a part-owner and controller of the Bond movie rights — and Amazon, which purchased the remaining rights to the property when it bought MGM in 2022, have broken down, with the former reportedly describing the latter in conversations with friends as “fucking idiots.”

At the heart of the conflict, according to the report sourced according to the WSJ from “more than 20 people familiar with the Broccoli-Amazon feud,” is a breakdown in trust between the two parties over what constitutes the best interests of Bond as a franchise. Broccoli has historically protected Bond from overexposure — consider the lack of Bond spin-off movies across the past 60 years! — whereas Amazon… made last year’s 007: Road To A Million game show, which dared to ask "What if The Amazing Race had Brian Cox as a host?"

What this means in the short term would appear to be an impasse, unless ether party should suddenly decide to relinquish their interests in Bond. That’s unlikely to happen anytime soon, given the fact that the character has generated $7.6 billion in box office revenue to date… but with Broccoli seemingly unwilling to trust Amazon’s intentions according to those in the know, one side might need to blink before Bond’s brand disappears for good as anything other than a nostalgic oddity.

(For those wondering; the three years since No Time To Die isn’t the longest downtime in Bond’s screen career so far; that would be the six years between 1989’s License to Kill and 1995’s GoldenEye.)

If only there was one man known for achieving the impossible that could handle this... oh wait, he blew up back in No Time to Die.

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.