Will Amazon Become James Bond’s Greatest Villain?
Originally published at LATimes.com
Millions of James Bond fans globally are shaken and stirred by the news: Amazon has gained “creative control” of the film franchise. The world's largest online retailer will now determine not only the next actor to play the Bond character, but the entire direction of a franchise that has spanned 63 years and secured billions of dollars in box office earnings.
Where will the world’s most famous spy go next? Does this question even matter anymore to so-called “modern audiences”?
To answer the second question first, Bond’s future does indeed matter greatly to millions of fans, and not just cinephiles. The Bond films have been consumed by at least 20 percent of the world’s population, and the character himself—his tuxedo, his iconic lines, his embodiment of Western masculinity (a good thing)—has achieved household status over the decades. As the old saying goes, men want to be him, and women want to be with him.
For Amazon to steward the Bond franchise in good faith, and not just as a soulless money grab à la Disney Star Wars or Indiana Jones, one thing needs to be clear: James Bond is not just “content,” as former creative controller Barbara Broccoli herself noted.
Bond is a memory passed down from grandfather to father and father to son. He is a nostalgic relic of a bygone era, but one with resonance even today. For many boys (and even some girls), he is an introduction to masculinity—the good, the bad, and the ugly. He is simultaneously hero, tragic figure, and cautionary tale, showing men how to be the best versions of themselves while also exposing the pitfalls of debauchery, excess, and sin.
Bond is not just another thumbnail for Amazon’s catalog of movies and television shows. He is not just merchandise or a quick marketing tool. Forget that, and Amazon risks alienating a fervent Bond fanbase that will take new productions with a grain of salt and choose physical (e.g. non-Amazon-released) copies of films past. Treat Bond like “content” alone, and the risks will be financial too—lower box office numbers, fewer clicks, and a steady erosion of Bond’s impact on mainstream culture.
Just look at the “content” landscape. Was Star Wars better perceived by its true fans pre-Disney ownership or today, with its seemingly endless spin-offs that devalue the 1970s-era brand while desensitizing viewers with cheap dopamine hits? What about Indiana Jones, whose final installment—2023’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny—entered and exited mainstream discourse with barely a whimper?
Emphasis on true fandom. For Amazon to succeed as Bond’s steward, the company should cater to those who will actually line up on the next film’s opening weekend and watch YouTube reviews of the latest Bond girl. The target audience is the fan who may even open an original novel by Ian Fleming, exploring the character’s humble origins in print.
What Bond’s actual fans are not: People who want to fundamentally change the character. Bond matters as much as he does because, since the 1962 release of Dr. No, they have grown to know, like, and trust the man on the screen—or on the page, since Fleming’s Casino Royale of 1953. Fans have grown to love 007, and those people are Amazon’s ideal end users who will also make the company more money—lots of it.
If Amazon’s appeal is to those who want to make the character female, gay, or “woke,” they are appealing to a much, much tinier slice of the film-viewing public than actually exists. That appeal will fall on blind eyes and deaf ears because those people aren’t actually fans; they just want to co-opt a beloved character, one they deem offensive to modern sensibilities, into a fringe political crusade.
During recent discussions between Broccoli’s Eon Productions and Amazon, one Amazon employee reportedly claimed, “I don’t think James Bond is a hero.” If there are Bond fans, she is the opposite. Her view may represent a vocal minority, but it is a minority nonetheless—and one that can’t be effectively monetized.
The path forward for Amazon—and Bond himself—should be common sense: Don’t fix what isn’t broken. Stick to the same formula that made the 007 franchise history’s longest-running in the first place. It is the same formula that worked for Fleming and the Broccolis themselves. To quote Barbara’s father, Cubby, “Whenever you get stuck, go back to Fleming.”
Otherwise, James Bond will be stuck in the past, yet another film franchise buried six feet under by corporate America. And Amazon will become Bond’s greatest villain.
