Aaron McGahon

I sincerely hope I’m wrong about all of this, but it will take quite some time and at least 2 Bond films to find out.

With Amazon taking creative control of James Bond, what was the last standing mainstream cinema franchise that wasn’t controlled by a corporate studio but by passionate creatives, this is how franchises die. They don’t stop making them, we stop wanting to see them.

a knight with a helmet and a sword says " this is the way " ALT: a knight with a helmet and a sword says " this is the way "

This is how franchises die. You might look at all of and think “you’ve just taken what happened to Star Wars/Marvel and applied it to Bond”, but I’m not the one who is doing that, Amazon is. Because, to quote one of many spin-offs of another fading franchise, “this is the way”!

But we’ll just wait until it comes out on streaming, we didn’t like the last one or the one before that and there’s just too many to keep up with now.

The films won’t stop coming, but sadly, that’s just what we’re expecting. Instead of anticipating there finally being a new James Bond film in the cinema, we won’t even need to check if there’s a new Bond film or Bond spin-off out, there probably is one.

With a seemingly non-stop factory of dragging spin-offs, a disappointing swan-song to their first James Bond, no plan of the new direction in place, all while still in the safe-zone, we will just have become depressingly used to the constance of Bond on the big and small screen.

As a result of this, either our 007th 007 will decide to jump out of the plane without a parachute of he will be pushed. Suddenly, Amazon will be on the hunt for the other feller yet again, only this time, people will have stopped caring.

‘Bond 28/New-Bond 3’ will do decently at the box office yet again, but critically? This is where the bulletproof glass on the Aston Martin windscreen shatters. This film will generally be regarded as just plain bad.

I’m sure they’ll be distinguishable and Amazon will learn from the mistakes of this spin-off though, right? … Right??? Oh, and another spin-off has just been announced, amidst news that Amazon is taking a rethink on their already announced plans for Bonds 29 & 30.

As well as that, we’ll have just had announcements for more spin-offs, but wait, that new spin-off sounds very like the one we have now.

This is when people will start to notice that these spin-offs, while exciting at first and took social media by storm, are kind of dragging, a lot of filler and a lot of reliance on Bond iconography over actually fleshed out stories.

Around the time of the promo for ‘Bond 28/New-Bond 3”, audiences will likely be into the second season of one of the Bond spin-offs, or maybe they’ve kept things in cinema, so we’re on the second spin-off film. The shifting of attention away from the main act.

This is when we will start to see what people feared when it was announced that Amazon had taken creative control.

They will not want another polarising Bond film, much safer to play to the masses. But as a result of this, they will retreat into the “safe-zone”, which is corporate studio for “processed, underwritten, rushed drivel”!

Writers will be taken off projects, maybe even directors will change. We will start to hear about delays, rewrites, reshoots. A general unease around the development of ‘Bond 28/New-Bond 3’. This will be entirely due to the studio’s panic.

This is when we’ll start to remember that the Bond franchise is no longer governed by any particular creatives, but Amazon, another corporate studio. One thing these corporate studios tend to do with bold, brave creative choices that aren’t met with 1000% positivity is panic!

This is when we see a few pitons being knocked out and Bond begins his unwanted decent of the St. Cyril’s cliff face that is the franchise’s new era…

The film will again be a box-office hit but the discussions surrounding this film will be more focussed on the surprising story choices and what it means for the character of James Bond going forward.

While the majority of fans will have been happy with the previous instalment, with some disagreeing but not the majority, this instalment will be more polarising!

This film will experiment, it will push the boat out, go for the jugular. In this film, we will see a story direction we didn’t expect to see from the James Bond series. It will likely be a very brave choice, whatever it may be.

Roll on ‘Bond 27/New-Bond 2’.
“This is the big one, 007!”.
Amazon now has the moderate trust of a safe number of the audience. People are anticipating this film, they want to see the new 007 back in action, to see where he goes next.

We may get a spin-off series/film or two after that first success, maybe a bit more time will be taken, but they will come. I’ll get back to the subject of spin-offs. There’s a bigger fish to fry first.

With the success of ‘Bond 26/New-Bond 1’, audiences will begin to lower their guard. We’ll feel more open to the rumoured Bond-related projects we’re beginning to hear about. “If it’s as good as the last film, then I’ll be looking forward to it”.

Another thing this film will likely have is a host of lively and colourful supporting characters. Let’s say “Paloma-types”. Some that you might think are almost designed for people to say “SPIN-OFF WHEN???”, which will eventually be put in motion.

This film will have a LOT to appease fans, with lots feeling like it ticks a lot of the boxes. There may be some that also feel like it is just a box-ticking Bond film, designed to evoke nostalgia and familiarity. Overall, this film will likely be a box-office hit.

I may even not be surprised if we see a familiar cast member returning to ad familiarity. Maybe Ralph Feinnes stays on as M? Hell, maybe we’ll see Pierce Brosnan or Timothy Dalton return in different roles?

Though the supporting cast will have some big names. Florence Pugh as our female lead? Giancarlo Esposito’s Bond villain?

A capable director will be hired, along with decent writers. Amazon will throw every penny at this film. It could go either way with the casting of the next James Bond, we could get an unknown or Amazon will just take the most popular names from Jeff Bezos’ replies.

Amazon knows they need to make their mark on the series and attempt to prove their worth by trying to make this the biggest, most Bondian James Bond film ever.

I actually think the next Bond film will probably be successful. I believe a hell of a lot of work will go into the making of ‘Bond 26’ (or as some might end up arguing, ‘New-Bond 1’ 🤮).