James Bond Writer Afraid Amazon Might Turn The 007 Franchise Into An MCU Replica

The James Bond franchise has been one of the most popular film-series of all time. As the massive MGM/Amazon deal has undergone in which Amazon paid $8.45 billion, they have rights to all the movie franchises which have been developed and released under MGM.

James Bond writer John Logan has some concern over what the ownership means for the future of the franchise. Being one of the writers for highly successful James Bond movies such as Skyfall and Spectre, he fears that the care & creative balance that Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson have struck for the series might get traded for an approach that’s only good for earning profits.

What happens if a bruising corporation like Amazon begins to demand a voice in the process? What happens to the comradeship and quality control if there’s an Amazonian overlord with analytics parsing every decision? What happens when a focus group reports they don’t like Bond drinking martinis? Or killing quite so many people? And that English accent’s a bit alienating, so could we have more Americans in the story for marketability?

While franchises such as MCU, DCEU and even Star Wars now have been massive crowd pullers, Logan fears that it might turn out to be the future of the 007 franchise. He continued:

Bond is allowed to provoke, grow and be idiosyncratic. Long may that continue. James Bond has survived the Cold War, Goldfinger, Jaws, disco, and Ernst Stavro Blofeld, several times. And I can only hope that the powers that be at Amazon recognize the uniqueness of what they just acquired and allow and encourage this special family business to continue unobstructed.

Logan also thinks that since it took the hard work and supervision of Broccoli and Wilson in order to carve out James Bond as his own individual hero, he isn’t sure what the future holds for the franchise, as Amazon is not exactly supportive of the creative vision of the creators.

In the context of the larger company, Amazon Prime Video is not chiefly about artists. It’s about attracting and retaining customers. And when bigger companies start having a say in iconic characters or franchises, the companies tend to want more, not better, and the quality differential can vary wildly, project to project.

While Amazon will be moving forward with the franchise pretty soon, Daniel Craig will be filling in the shoes of James Bond for the last time in No Time To Die, which will be released in the US on 8 October 2021 & release in the UK on 30 September 2021.