Will Amazon destroy James Bond?
For years, the biggest threat to 007 "was the apocryphal 'woke police'", said Adam White in The Independent: a "mob of rainbow-haired bisexuals" determined to turn James Bond into a woman and replace his vodka martini with "vegan wine".
But now, we know how Bond will really be killed off: through "a slow, sad corporate takeover". Last week, the Broccoli family yielded creative control over the franchise to Amazon MGM Studios.
'Hallmark of Britishness'
For Brits, 007 "is not just A.N. Other action hero", said Janice Turner in The Times: "he's our soft power, our collective national id" – an alluring mix of "tradition and modernity" and "understated cool", "salted" with a dash of humour. Now, it's only a matter of time before Jeff Bezos and his algorithm-led streaming platform turn Bond into a bland, "Americanised" figure.
Still, the buyout is "grimly appropriate", said Madeline Grant in The Telegraph. "Bond films always mirror geopolitical reality": how fitting, then, that a tech giant from the US – so "vastly wealthy" and "culturally self-confident in a way we no longer are" – should be gobbling up "this hallmark of Britishness".
'Supervillain's bounty'
It's a "worrying" time for us fans, said Dominic Maxwell in The Times. But this should at least end the Bond drought. New films used to come along every three years or so, but it has been four since Daniel Craig's swansong, "No Time to Die", and no new installment is in sight. This is largely due to infighting between Amazon (which bought MGM and the rights to Bond in 2017) and Barbara Broccoli, whose father launched the films in 1962. After one fractious meeting, she reportedly labelled Amazon executives "f**king idiots" for describing Bond films as "content". Now that the family has ceded their control – reportedly for a cool £1 billion – someone might "finally be motivated" to make a film.
There is a reason Bezos paid this "supervillain's bounty", said Alexander Larman in The Spectator: the deal has given Amazon what all studios covet – control over the series' intellectual property. Just as Disney has "so inexpertly done with 'Star Wars'", Bezos will now milk the franchise for all it's worth: get ready for spinoffs galore, from Teen Bond to Blofeld's "origin story".
It's a shame. Bond has endured "not because of the terrible quips" and martinis, but because Broccoli fiercely guarded the brand, making sure each film was an event. Now the floodgates are open for a vulgar free-for-all. That sound you hear is "1,000 Amazon executives rubbing their hands together with glee".