Amazon Is Reportedly Struggling to Bring James Bond Back From the Dead
The James Bond franchise has always had an unspoken rule, when one Bond retires, another takes his place, and the adventure continues.
Much like Doctor Who, audiences understand that new faces come and go, but the character endures. However, No Time to Die complicated that smooth handoff by doing something no Bond film had ever done before… it killed him off. And now, Amazon is reportedly having a hard time figuring out how to fix that.
According to a report from Radar Online, Amazon executives are struggling to find a new entry point for the next James Bond movie, which is being developed with Denis Villeneuve directing and Steven Knight writing the script.
The issue? They’re reportedly wrestling with how to explain that Bond is alive again after being “blown to smithereens” in No Time to Die.
Author Anthony Horowitz, who has written several official Bond novels, weighed in on the problem, saying:
“The last time we saw Bond, he was poisoned and blown to smithereens—how will they get past the fact he is dead with a capital D? I think that was a mistake, because Bond is a legend.
“He belongs to everybody, he is eternal—except in that film. If I was asked tomorrow to write the script, I wouldn’t be able to do it. Where would you start? You can’t have him waking up in the shower and saying it was all a dream.”
While Amazon seems to be overthinking the situation, longtime Bond fans aren’t exactly losing sleep over continuity. The James Bond movies have always played fast and loose with their timeline.
Every few years, a new actor takes over the tux, and audiences roll with it. Whether it’s Skyfall hinting at Bond’s family roots in Scotland or Casino Royale showing his first kill, viewers know that each version of Bond operates in his own pocket of cinematic reality.
The “death” of Bond in No Time to Die was more of a creative farewell for Daniel Craig than a permanent story decision. Most fans already accepted that his run was over and that a new 007 would soon arrive. Yet insiders claim that Amazon is determined to find a logical way to bridge that gap, when audiences have never really demanded one.
There have been reports that Knight’s script might take things back to Bond’s early days before MI6, before the license to kill, following his transition from the Royal Navy into the world of espionage.
If that’s true, the solution could be as simple as rebooting the series with a younger Bond, similar to how Casino Royale reinvented the franchise for a new generation.
I just assumed the creative team would give the franchise a fresh reboot ignoring everything that happened before. I mean, you can’t really bring Bond back from the dead unless they plan on making him a zombie or bring in some kind of supernatural element.
What do you think? What are you expecting from the next movie and how this will be handled?