In case you missed my piece over the weekend, apparently someone at Amazon Prime Video decided that James Bond shouldn’t be holding guns anymore. The streaming service quietly replaced promotional posters for classics like Dr. No and Goldfinger, removing 007’s firearms entirely.
The edits were subtle in some cases — Roger Moore’s arms mysteriously elongated to hide a gun, Daniel Craig’s weapon cropped out entirely — but the effect is clear: Bond is now an action hero who doesn’t, you know, actually carry a gun.
Of course, the internet did what it does best. Memes of “gunless Bond” started circulating immediately, with fans replacing his weapons with everything from baguettes to lightsabers.
Following the mockery and backlash, Amazon restored the classic thumbnails that had been on the service for months. Victory for the fans? Not exactly. Some of those “restored” images have also been subtly censored. Joblo’s Christopher Bumbray even noticed that Skyfall had been tinkered with. Take a look:
Why is Amazon so fixated on keeping James Bond’s gun out of sight—the very character they spent a billion dollars to acquire? When the next 007 film finally premieres, will any of the marketing even show him wielding a Walther PPK? Guns, and women, are as much a part of Bond’s DNA as his tuxedo and martini. Stripping them away is an insult to the fans who’ve kept this legendary franchise alive for decades.
The fact that this even happened should concern anyone who cares about the franchise. I get it, Amazon didn’t want to offend the easily upset, but was it really worth it? Fans are already skeptical about a massive conglomerate owning the rights to Bond, and then they pull a move like this? The optics are terrible.
If Amazon/MGM Studios really wants Denis Villeneuve at the helm of the next Bond, they should be worrying about strong storytelling and smart filmmaking—not digitally erasing the franchise’s iconic weapon. Honestly, I can only imagine the look on Villeneuve’s face when he sees this mess.
I should warn you: based on everything I’ve heard, this teaser is a total misdirection. The movie is not at all what it’s being portrayed as here. In fact, most of the footage in the teaser comes from the first few minutes of the film.