Amazon takes full creative control of James Bond

I think the Bond films have been in decline. Neither No Time to Die or Spectre were good, but this will arguably result in the content for Bond becoming more commoditized, which I think will likely lead to a decline in quality for the character and the films. The primary reason Broccoli is out is because she disagreed with the creative direction that Amazon wanted to take the series, which included creating a Bond universe, and also, a potential streaming or TV series, rather than sticking exclusively with the films.

What would an Amazon Bond universe be like?

Have you seen the Rings of Power?

Nope, but it sounds hideous.

Feels like a recipe for disaster certainly

Sounds like the death of Bond to me. And to think all those arch super villains couldn't do 007 in, but Amazon can

I mean, Spectre was literally 10x better than Die Another Day which bordered on Farce.
The Bond movies usually get worse on a fairly steady decline with occasional bumps after each reboot. And, having just had this conversation with a friend, so many Bond movies from previous eras were borderline comedy they were so silly. I just re-watched You Only Live Twice, which I used to love (when I was NINE), and I thought, "This only works as parody today".
I would say that while No Time To Die was easily the worst Craig Bond Film, that's just par for the course for the franchise and it's time to move to the next one. Not sure how this became a political issue.

those first three Craig movies were phenomenal. then they had to go and cock it up with the last one.

and i’m not talking about the identity politics stuff because that is NOT A BIG DEAL. that’s something you clutch pearls over, which means you’re a Nancy.

the reason it sucked was it had no direction, and it tried to do too much at the same time. (i.e. it was boring)

I have no clue, but I'd bet a dollar or one share of Amazon that you won't see anymore wealthy villains who are bald with a wonky eye who are set upon world domination and have billion dollar secret lairs and dress to impress!

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This is too smart a move for a big corporation.

A Bond "universe" implies spin-offs. Like MIss Moneypenny gets her own tv show or some such baloney. The further adventures of Q.

Light-touch reminder about politics, guys. Keep it broad. Like this.

I think the Craig Bonds are the best.

I personally have an issue with sexism in cinema. Even the females have names that are sexually charged.

I know my male friends around here love them but I will stick with Craig.

Bond is a product of its time which is why it doesn't hold up well when changed and rewritten for modern sensibilities.
A brooding and emotional James Bond, based off the archetypal male hero of the early 1900s, just doesn't translate well.

If they want to make spy movies with modern contemporary themes, they really shouldn't be using the Bond name.
They should write new stories and heroes... but they won't for 2 reasons... Bond is an existing IP, and well sell tickets... and a non-name new character is too risky... reason 2 is that there's no actual talent in the writing room to actually create anything new.

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Bond IS a male power fantasy. He's a phallic Bugs Bunny. No obstacle, physical, administrative, psychological, sexual, political, practical, legal, etc., can stand in his way. The sexism is inherent to his character. Sexual rejection/resistance/tension is merely an obstacle. He's also
mass-murdering sociopathic alcoholic instrumentalist. But, you can't update James Bond and preserve the Id release. Should the boys get to keep their toys? Or should their toys be updated? Or should those toys be gifted to other kids? Should infantile ego-release of some other demographic be served? If so, that release is likely to offend the legacy audience. And do we really trust Amazon to stick the landing with this IP.

The best move is to make him a "period" character to take the curse off the character. A John Wayne cowboy in a civil society is a violent and intolerable character (e.g., The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance). A John Wayne cowboy on the frontier of the Old West can be a hero (e.g., Stagecoach). It's easier to forgive imperfect characters if they live in an imperfect world. Bond is an expedient, but when his villains are just trying steal all your metadata, he doesn't quite seem justified.

Well said. Myself I love the early Sean Connery Bond films and yes he's a scallywag, a brut with a licenses to kill and very misogynistic. But it's quite appropriate for the time it was made as it reflects where we were in society. I don't need all my movies to have a relatable and virtuous hero. I stopped actively watching Bond films after Roger Moore was finished with the role. I've only recently seen the Timothy Dalton and Pierce Bronson Bond films and I've only seen the first Daniel Craig film. For me Bond ran out of steam long ago and is a product of the past. I've said this years ago here at MoFo, 'a new Bond film needs to be set during the cold war era of the early 60s, it's the only way you can keep Bond like he was originally written.'

Maybe the change will bring new life to the franchise. The Daniel Craig era brought more focus on relationships which helped make the formula seem less formulaic. Maybe a new crew will find new ways to keep the formula fresh.
But I doubt it. I suspect we're in for a stream of risk-averse lowest-common-denominator algorithmic rehashes. Hoping to be proved wrong though

For those wondering what to expect, I'd say essentially this.

Off the top of my head because I can't see them not doing so.

Moneypenny spin off
Q spin off
M spin off
Felix Leiter spin off
Possibly an 'origin story' or an early Cold War series to get 'back to his roots'.
I've been told that the 'new' books are good, so making those too, although I don't know if the previous owners would've been against that?

They're just sat there waiting to be done. Probably TV series but possibly films and I can't see why you'd pay a billion just to have James drive a different car or erase corperate billionaires as baddies.

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