James Bond has fallen into the hands of a billionaire’s business empire after Amazon revealed that it has acquired “creative control” of the spy franchise from the Broccoli dynasty.
Amazon MGM Studios said on Thursday it had struck a deal with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson, the British-American heirs to the film producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli and longtime stewards of the Bond films.
A spokesperson for Amazon said the financial terms of the deal were for their eyes only.
But the world’s second largest corporation, by revenue, confirmed that it had formed a new joint venture with Wilson and Broccoli to house the James Bond intellectual property, with Amazon assuming “creative control”.
Within hours of the deal, Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and the world’s second richest man, was asking followers for casting advice via the social media platform X, owned by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
He asked: “Who’d you pick as the next Bond?”
The agreement could open the door to production starting on a long-awaited new film and to a potentially limitless avalanche of spin-off TV shows for the Amazon Prime streaming service.
The deal is not thought to be related to a Dubai-based property developer’s audacious attempt, revealed by the Guardian last week, to seize the James Bond trademark across a range of goods and services.
Amazon has had a financial interest in James Bond since 2021, when it paid $8.45bn (£6.68bn) for MGM, acquiring 007 as part of a catalogue of more than 4,000 films and 17,000 TV shows.
The MGM deal gave Amazon the right to distribute all the James Bond films but it will now gain the power to press ahead with new instalments, kickstarting a production line that has stalled in recent years.
In the earlier years of Bond, the franchise was a regular, even annual, fixture in the calendar, with 16 films released between Dr No in 1961 and Licence to Kill in 1989. The subsequent six-year gap until GoldenEye was the longest break in the history of Bond.
It has been four years since the 2021 release of No Time To Die and, with no new film in production, the current hiatus is on course to become 007’s longest ever holiday.
Gaining creative control will give Amazon the power to move forward without approval from Wilson and Broccoli, who have acted as careful guardians of the integrity of a character originally created in 1953 by author Ian Fleming.
Steven Gaydos, executive editor of the US film magazine Variety, said he was initially surprised by the deal after reports that Broccoli and Wilson had not hit it off with the new owners, denied by Amazon, and were unhappy at the prospect of several Bond spin-offs.
He said: “It wasn’t that long ago that it was reported that Barbara and Michael had sparred with Amazon and there had been a fight over it. But they’re getting older and there is a mountain to climb to achieve what they have done.
“It’s a record that will never be matched. They kept turning over the card and coming up with an ace, over and over.”
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Gaydos said he was certain that Amazon would now expand the Bond “universe”, citing the example of Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. “Absolutely, 100%,” he said. “Why wouldn’t they?”
Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said Amazon was grateful to Wilson and Broccoli “for their unyielding dedication and their role in continuing the legacy of the franchise that is cherished by legions of fans worldwide.
“We are honoured to continue this treasured heritage, and look forward to ushering in the next phase of the legendary 007 for audiences around the world.”
Wilson, 83, said he was ending his film-making activities. He said: “With my 007 career spanning nearly 60 incredible years, I am stepping back from producing the James Bond films to focus on art and charitable projects. Therefore, Barbara and I agree, it is time for our trusted partner, Amazon MGM Studios, to lead James Bond into the future.”
Broccoli, 64, said: “My life has been dedicated to maintaining and building upon the extraordinary legacy that was handed to Michael and me by our father, producer Cubby Broccoli. I have had the honour of working closely with four of the tremendously talented actors who have played 007 and thousands of wonderful artists within the industry. With the conclusion of No Time to Die, and Michael retiring from the films, I feel it is time to focus on my other projects.”
Broccoli is the daughter of Cubby Broccoli, who co-founded the series with fellow producer Harry Saltzman. She began working on the Bond films as a teenager in minor roles, before acting as assistant director on Octopussy in 1983 and associate producer on The Living Daylights in 1987. Her first full Bond producer credit was on GoldenEye in 1995.
Wilson is Cubby Broccoli’s stepson. A qualified lawyer, he joined Broccoli’s Eon Productions in 1972 and became executive producer on Moonraker in 1979, and moved to producer for A View to a Kill in 1985.
Together the pair built Bond into one of the most successful franchises in cinema history, having grossed more than $7.8bn worldwide, behind only the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Spider-Man. The most successful Bond film remains Skyfall, released in 2012, with a worldwide gross of $1.1bn.
Eon has been reluctant to spread the Bond name too thin through the kind of spin-offs that have proved fruitful for streaming services, which have cashed in on the popularity of films such as Star Wars or zombie TV show The Walking Dead.
A rare foray outside the Bond films was the creation of 007: Road to a Million, a reality competition series released on Amazon Prime Video that features nine teams competing for a £1m prize.