So, as the Bond rumors persist, with the UK tabloids seemingly anointing a new frontrunner almost every other week, and contradictory intel colliding from all sides, an actual reputable outlet is posing a question no one’s even thought to ask: what if Amazon has no plan? What if they just don’t know what they’re doing?
More than a year after Amazon gained creative control of the James Bond franchise, the series appears to be playing a waiting game. Rather than momentum, the transition has produced silence, and the gap between films is now on track to become the longest in the franchise’s history. Even the previously record-setting hiatus between “Licence to Kill” (1989) and “GoldenEye” (1995) will be surpassed, with “No Time to Die” having been released in 2021 and a new film arriving, at the very earliest, in 2028.
A new report written by The Telegraph’s Tim Robey (“Amazon don't know what to do with it'”: What's going on with James Bond?”) says the script, from Steven Knight, is “nowhere near ready,” while key creative figures remain otherwise occupied. Denis Villeneuve is tied up with post-production work on “Dune: Part Three,” and might be tied up to that film until Oscar season wraps in March 2027. Meanwhile, Knight is busy with other major projects, including the recent “Immortal Man,” the Netflix series “House of Guinness,” and an untitled sequel series to “Peaky Blinders.”
Behind the scenes, the uncertainty appears to extend beyond scheduling delays. Robey relays, anecdotally, that an unnamed middle-aged American film executive claims the head honchos at Amazon/MGM are “fed up with even thinking about 007’s future.”
Do you blame them? With no script, no confirmed vision, and no opportunity yet for creative chemistry to develop between Denis Villeneuve and Steven Knight, perhaps the real key is patience—taking the time to shape a project still searching for its next identity. If that results in a film not arriving until 2029—or, God forbid, 2030—then so be it.
James Chapman, professor of film studies at Leicester University and Bond historian, puts it bluntly: “They have bought this incredibly lucrative franchise, one with a very well-established brand identity, and I’m just getting the impression that they don’t know what to do with it.”
Of course, the key factor here is Knight, who’s writing Bond 26 for Villeneuve and Amazon/MGM. With credits that include “Peaky Blinders” and “Eastern Promises,” the expectation would be that a writer known for gritty, violent storytelling might deliver a grittier, more violent Bond. But is that what Amazon wants? Is that what Villeneuve wants? Maybe it’s time to get all these parties in a room and figure out what the actual plan is.