The Broccoli Household Protected James Bond For Generations – Amazon Will not Be As Type
“Progress” is the magic phrase in at present’s enterprise world, and this pursuit of extra for shareholders’ sake is at the moment diminishing, if not outright killing, a number of long-cherished franchises. Simply take a look at what’s occurred to “Star Wars” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Disney insisted these properties spin off their movies into myriad tv collection, thus making certain the theaters and/or streamers won’t ever be bereft of recent branded content material. “Skeleton Crew” simply earned the bottom scores in “Star Wars” historical past on Disney+, whereas the MCU has been experiencing inventive and, save for a few exceptions, business paralysis since 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.”
In Disney’s meager protection, not less than these franchises are stuffed to bursting with characters who may conceivably help a standalone film or collection. James Bond, then again, exists in a small world of worldwide espionage the place the supporting characters are beloved as a result of they’re so sparingly used. I am thrilled EON allowed for Moneypenny, as portrayed by Naomie Harris, to get out of the workplace and strut her deadly stuff within the subject, however I’ve by no means felt famished for extra Moneypenny adventures. The identical might be stated of M, Q, Felix Leiter, and any of Bond’s different associates. For a very long time, Bond was particular as a result of we solely acquired a brand new 007 flick each few years. If Amazon MGM Studios needed to return to that schedule, I might each welcome and perceive this.
But it surely’s not going to cease there. We all know from that Wall Avenue Journal story that it is hellbent on creating some type of James Bond Prolonged Universe, at which level, as this lifelong 51-year-old fan of the franchise can guarantee you, they’ll discover out simply how little folks care about everybody in these tales who is not James Bond. EON Productions and MGM figured this out after they pulled the plug on Halle Berry’s Jinx spinoff after the tepidly acquired “Die One other Day,” and as a substitute opted for the hard-for-007 reboot of “On line casino Royale.”
When Amazon MGM Studios lastly will get round to premiering its first James Bond film, it will have already developed (and sure introduced) spinoffs that shall be algorithmically designed to enchantment, in concept, to each demographic. There shall be excessive fives throughout the company workplaces as Amazon’s proprietor, the real-life Bond villain Jeff Bezos (a Trump-toadying billionaire who will get off on union busting), beams in from his Blue Origin spacecraft. In the meantime, we’ll wearily trudge to theaters (supplied it will get a theatrical launch) and watch dutifully snapped-together content material with no self-contained narrative — the sort that exists solely to maintain us watching and watching and watching till we’re doing it out of glum behavior as a substitute of enjoyment.
That is how blockbuster leisure works in 2025. James Bond was an outlier on this regard, however as of at present, James Bond as we knew him is useless. He is not going to return.
