The future of the James Bond franchise remains in a holding pattern due to a soured relationship between producer Barbara Broccoli and Amazon, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.
Amazon closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of MGM, the longtime home of the James Bond series, in March 2022. However, due to a standoff with Broccoli and her stepbrother, Michael G. Wilson, over the franchise’s creative direction, there has been no movement toward a sequel to 2021’s No Time to Die.
Broccoli, who took over the keys for Bond from her father during the Pierce Brosnan era, stands opposed to Amazon’s reported push for a “Marvel-style” expansion that would include film and television show spinoffs, and is described as having taken the franchise “hostage.”
According to WSJ, an Amazon Studios exec’s description of Bond as “content” in an early meeting was like a “death knell” to Broccoli. She has since referred to the folks at Amazon as “fucking idiots” to friends and expressed deep concerns about the e-commerce company being the right fit for Bond.
This isn’t the first time the Bond movies have taken a beat. There was a six-year gap between 1989’s Licence to Kill and GoldenEye as the Broccoli family took time to figure out a successor to Timothy Dalton and a new direction for the franchise.
On that note, there hasn’t been any official movement toward picking the next Bond, though Broccoli and Wilson recently confirmed the new actor will be a man and likely be in his 30s.