Amelia Emberwing
Guest
In landmark entertainment news that left James Bond fans feeling shaken, not stirred, Amazon MGM Studios has taken full control of the 007 franchise from long-time producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. While there are plenty of reasons to worry here, the fact of the matter is that there are already spinoff books, games, comics, etc, etc, not to mention the original novels by Ian Fleming. Dozens of writers, actors, artists, and more have tackled James Bond and his extended cast. And with Amazon’s reported ambitions to turn James Bond into a “universe,” a la Marvel and Star Wars, and billions of dollars at stake, the Bond franchise has no time to die.
Naturally, this was one of Broccoli’s concerns in giving up the rights, that Amazon MGM would try to expand too quickly or cast a name actor in the role of the secret agent. Will Amazon hold true to these ideals, or are we about to get Timothée Chalamet as the next 007? Likely not the latter (all apologies to Chalamet), but Amazon has already tried to create their own spy franchise with the Russo Brothers produced Citadel, and international spinoffs Citadel: Diana and Citadel: Honey Bunny. Those have generally lacked critical acclaim (except for Honey Bunny), and at least domestically haven’t really broken through to audiences in the same way as other Amazon hits like The Boys.
…Or more to the point, Amazon’s dudes with guns shows like Reacher, Jack Ryan, and Bosch. In fact, one could posit this is a large part of the reasoning behind Amazon shelling out a billion dollars more to own Bond: some of their most successful series have already been white men, with guns, their names in the title, based on book series. Unlike the money Amazon plunked down for Lord of the Rings (your mileage may vary on how successful Rings of Power has been), buying James Bond outright based on the data available is one of the safest purchases Amazon could make. Prime Video audiences already flock to shows about guys like James Bond, so why not James Bond himself?
One other detail you might not be aware of: Amazon already made a James Bond TV show. Seriously. Titled 007: Road to a Million, the reality game show streamed in 2023, was hosted by Brian Cox, and was picked up for a second season before the first even hit Prime Video. Only tangentially related to Bond by the idea that Cox is playing a pseudo-Bond villain while contestants race to win one million pounds, the series wasn’t a big hit but it does show that Amazon has already played in the TV space with 007. And as just one extra funny tidbit, Cox thought he was signing up for the next Bond movie. He was not, so maybe Amazon could do right by him in the future.
But wait, there’s more! Back in 1954, an anthology series titled Climax! aired the first-ever adaptation of “Casino Royale,” the Ian Fleming novel, before it was later committed to film multiple times. Point being, there’s not much of a history of TV for James Bond, but just as the franchise has had some of its most lauded installments in video games (have you ever played GoldenEye for the N64?), comics, and more, James Bond isn’t quite the sacred cow we think of, when it comes to adaptation.
Mind you, there have been no announcements that Amazon is forgoing film entirely, and likely they won’t. MGM isn’t the studio it once was, but for every Red One that hits theaters, they still have the Oscar-nominated Nickel Boys. There’s plenty of reason to believe that even without the Broccolis, Amazon MGM will aim to do right by the Bond franchise.
And frankly, is there anything that is out of left field about the idea of a franchise extension? While perhaps cutting Bond theatrically entirely and instead doing a TV streaming version of Bond might be the ultimate nightmare of cinephiles, there is a wealth of fascinating characters who revolve around Bond that often have far more chance of character growth than the main character himself. Bond, over decades, has remained relatively static – the recent Craig movies aside – while Q, M, Moneypenny, and even Felix Leiter always seem to have a lot more going on between the scene or two Bond spends checking in with them per film.
Would a series where Q has to go out of the lab and use his own gadgets be so terrible? How about Felix having to deal with the fallout of Bond blowing up the latest supervillain plot on the American side? And given the wealth of villains and henchmen in the Bond universe who have inspired dozens of fanfics, tributes, and knockoffs, an anthology series that gave them each more time in the sun could be a lot of fun. Who hasn’t wondered how Jaws got those jaws?
There’s also an opportunity here to flesh out the character of James Bond through a serialized TV show in a way that has not, for the most part, been afforded the character on the big screen. Aside from the rare instance where Bond suffers a sprained ankle at the beginning of the movie, the character has been functionally immortal, down to switching his face like a Time Lord. It wasn’t until the recent Daniel Craig films that Bond was allowed to have some sort of growth, though even then it was relegated to “bummed about the death of his girlfriend” for the majority of the Craig movies, and “old” in the last one.
The lone exception is Skyfall, arguably the best Bond movie of all time… Because it truly challenged James emotionally and moved the series forward to almost a logical conclusion. The next movie reset things in many ways, but imagine being able to see that kind of arc over 10, 20, or even 30 episodes (we’re not going to go crazy and suggest a streaming show go a full 22 episodes a season or anything like that)? You likely won’t get 10 Skyfalls in a row, but if you can get some nods to the ambition of that film in there, viewers could be in for something truly special.
The flip side is that Amazon could not look to the obvious – i.e. their dudes with guns shows – and instead take the route of Lord of the Rings, and deliver a prequel all leading up to the birth of James Bond. To that, perhaps they need look no further than Pennyworth, a goofy show with a host of loyal fans that nevertheless confused casual viewers as to why we were getting a show about Batman’s future butler. Or, for example, The Rings of Power, a show with a hot Sauron and virtually no rings in the first season that tested the patience of even the most loyal fans.
That’s the potential nightmare scenario, that Amazon will think with their algorithm instead of their heart. Even at their worst, there’s a charm the Broccoli family and others managed to bring to the Bond franchise, with the same rhythms, the same big explosion, the same good girl gone bad and bad girl gone good, time and again. In the streaming era, we’re far from the place where you could deliver the poetry of a Bond movie on an episodic basis. To turn it into yet another serialized spy drama (or worse, a serialized prequel spy drama) risks making it lose that specialness and instead slot in with Netflix’s The Night Agent, The Diplomat, and The Recruit, or god help us Citadel, instead of being its own, unique thing.
This is the trick, really, and it is with any potential cinematic universe: what makes it different? In Bond’s case, up until now, it was that it existed mostly on the big screen, every few years, and delivered a level of action spectacle and plot comfort that TV has been creeping on for decades. If Amazon does want to turn the house Ian Fleming built into a multi-platform franchise, then they need to reckon with what makes Bond so unique. If they can figure that formula out, and perhaps build out that supporting cast, too (Ben Whishaw in a Q series? Come on!), then rather than the death sentence some fans have called this deal, the Bond franchise will die another day.