James Bond, the British spy under US ownership
Ian Fleming’s fictional creation, a boon and burden to UK intelligence agencies, will now be defined by tech giant Amazon
James Bond was last seen on the concrete rooftop of a villain’s lair in the Faroe Islands, blown to ashes in a hail of missile fire. Infected with deadly nanobots and bloodied by gunshots, he was condemned even before the weapons struck.
Resurrecting him was always going to require deftness, but 007 must now be reborn under new ownership: after three decades, franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and her stepbrother Michael Wilson have relinquished control to Amazon MGM Studios.
After Daniel Craig’s 007 was killed off in No Time to Die, Bond is now a character in search of a lead actor, a creative vision and, some believe, a modern identity. Britain’s most famous spy — whose worldwide appeal has been both boon and burden to the UK intelligence agencies — is looking to a future defined by an American tech giant and its Hollywood ambitions.
The Bond franchise, handed down to Broccoli by her father, the American film producer Albert “Cubby” Broccoli, is a lucrative legacy the family has fiercely defended. “We are very, very protective of Bond. Bond is our baby,” Broccoli said a decade ago. Even after MGM was sold to Amazon for $8.45bn in 2022, a deal that included distribution rights for the Bond films, Broccoli and Wilson retained creative control, including final say over casting and direction.
It was not a happy relationship. Amazon, widely seen as having overpaid for MGM, was eager to exploit the Bond property and establish itself as a Hollywood hitmaker. But Broccoli — described by people who have worked with her as a “born producer” — frequently resisted ideas brought to her by two Amazon Prime Video executives, Mike Hopkins and Jen Salke.
“For years Barbara had to weather partners who had ‘Bondsplained’ to her how to make these films when she was practically born on set,” said a person who knows her. “Barbara is used to having power. The control-iness of Amazon was bearing down on her.”
Bond was created in 1953 by Ian Fleming, a British novelist who learnt his tradecraft in the offices of naval intelligence during the second world war. It was here he gained the inspiration for 007, a spy who travelled the world dispatching villains, seducing women and drinking martinis — enabled by a seemingly unlimited expense account.
Broccoli, who holds dual British-American citizenship, stayed loyal to Fleming’s intelligence heritage by forming ties with the UK’s real Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. “Barbara has what you might call a ‘red phone’ to MI6, which tends to spark into life when the next movie is coming,” says one national security veteran.
Over the years, Broccoli has leveraged her access to the spy establishment, asking for advice on what the next Bond villain might look like, or on how they might handle the death of an agent. In exchange, MI6 chiefs have been invited to Bond premiers. Alex Younger, the former chief, even visited the set of No Time To Die at Pinewood Studios to see the office of M, his fictional counterpart.
Still, MI6 has always been wary of too close an association with Bond. For one, Bond’s ethics are a liability (“it’s the shooting and the shagging they get antsy about”, says one person familiar with the agency). But the spy has also built a brand synonymous with skill, resourcefulness and ingenious uses of high-end technology. Sean Connery was the first and perhaps the steeliest Bond — opening the franchise with Dr No in 1962. Since then, five subsequent Bonds have lent their own styles to the role, from Roger Moore’s assured comic delivery to Pierce Brosnan’s campier portrayal to Craig’s dive into the spy’s background and psychology.
Christopher Andrew, a Cambridge university history professor and official biographer for MI5, MI6’s sister agency, believes Bond has been a net positive for British spies. “Most of the world’s major intelligence agencies during the cold war were not popular,” he says. “The one exception was MI6, and MI6 owed its global popularity, primarily, to Bond. So I do think that it was something which made recruiting agents rather easier.”
The question is how Amazon will now reimagine Bond for a younger audience. Speculation about a female Bond has been quashed, not only by Broccoli but also by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the British comedy writer brought in to sharpen the script of No Time To Die. Waller-Bridge — who has a $60mn exclusivity deal to develop programmes for Amazon Studios — told reporters in 2021: “I think Bond is James Bond. We just need to cook up someone to rival him.”
When it was announced that Broccoli and Wilson were handing over creative control, Amazon executive chair Jeff Bezos appeared to crowdsource the search for a new 007. “Who’d you pick as the next Bond?” he posted on X. His question received 32,000 replies — a sign, if nothing else, of the character’s enduring appeal.
The job of selecting a lead actor is never easy: Broccoli made a bold choice when she named Daniel Craig as the new 007 in 2005. “It was a big swing for her to hire Daniel and stick with him,” says the person who knows her. “She didn’t really want to think about a horizon beyond him, which maybe explains why he was killed off in the last film. That was quite symbolic for her.”
Craig has claimed that he plotted secretly with Broccoli almost two decades ago that Bond would die with his last movie, leaving space for another actor to make their mark on the brand. “You need to reset again,” he said as he finally took his leave of the franchise. “Go find another Bond and go find another story”. This, now, is Amazon’s mission — the world awaits.