The news that Amazon now runs theJames Bondseries makes the odds ofJames Bond 26breaking a major franchise record seem extremely likely. The producers behind the phenomenally successfulJames Bondfranchise, Barbara Broccoli and Michal G. Wilson, shocked the world when Amazon MGM Studios announced they would be taking over creative control of the series going forward.2021’s long-delayedNo Time To Diewas the most recentJames Bondmovie, andNo Time To Die’s endingwas the first time the series killed off a version of Bond.
AlthoughNo Time To Diereceived largely positive reviews, the future of the franchise now seems uncertain. Despite rumors surrounding high-profile actors like Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Josh O’Connor, and Theo James, no actor has officially replaced Daniel Craig in the iconic role of 007. Not only that, butAmazonCEO Andy Jassy admitted “We don’t have a plan yet on what the next theme is going to be" when asked about the franchise in late February 2025.
James Bond 26 Is Likely To Have The Longest Gap Between Movies
The James Bond Franchise Never Went More Than Six Years Without A New Movie
It seems increasingly inevitable thatthe record for the longest gap betweenJames Bond movies will almost certainly be broken byJames Bond 26. Currently, the record stands at six years, and it is shared by two movies intheJames Bondseries. Six years elapsed between Timothy Dalton’s final outing as 007, 1989’sLicense to Kill, and Pierce Brosnan’s Bond debutGoldeneye. The same gap occurred between Craig’s penultimate outing,Spectre, which was released in 2015, and his final Bond movie,No Time To Die.
Without producer Barbara Broccoli’s involvement, the franchise’s fate seems to be in less assured hands.
It is already almost four years sinceNo Time To Diewas released and, more importantly, there is no sign of a new actor signing on to play Bond, a new script for the movie, or even any named creatives involved in its production. Without producer Barbara Broccoli’s involvement, the franchise’s fate seems to be in less assured hands. This is a considerable issue when even the legendary producer wasn’t able to replace Craig in the four years since his final outing. Admittedly, Amazon MGM Studios will most likely do everything in its power to profit from the franchise.
However, it is going to take a long while for the new producers to figure out how to update Bond for 2025. The studio will then need to get things moving immediately, since there is currently no plan in place according to the CEO’s own admission.Brosnan’s Bond debut,Goldeneye, was an incredibly popular rebrand for the franchise, which proves that a relatively lengthy absence from cinema screens isn’t an inherently bad thing for the series.
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That said, it is not necessarily a good thing either. If Bond’s actor had been announced by now and the project just needed the right creative team, the series would already be steadily building up hype. However, while taking things slowly allows the studio more time to get their approach right, it also shows just how much they have struggled to find a direction afterNo Time To Die. As such, the future of theJames Bondfranchise remains somewhat worrisome asJames Bond 26’s plans are entirely unclear for now.
