The Broccoli family have controlled the James Bond franchise ever since the films were launched by Albert “Cubby” Broccoli (and his partner Harry Saltzman) in 1962. Now, his daughter and stepson, long-serving producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, have announced that they have surrendered creative control to Amazon MGM Studios.
Within minutes of the announcement on February 20, critics, analysts and fans of the Bond films rushed to proclaim the end of the beloved franchise. “Quite possibly the worst thing to happen to this franchise”, “the end of an era” and “RIP James Bond” were just a few of the responses.
The fear is that, under Amazon’s leadership, Bond will go down the same route as other beloved media properties, such as Star Wars and Marvel.
