Well ... at least it's not Disney, where intellectual properties go to die via DEI. But will Amazon be much better? I'm shaken, not stirred.

The BBC reported yesterday that the Broccoli family -- which has controlled Ian Fleming's James Bond character and stories since 1964's Dr. No -- has decided to step back. They will remain a partner in the Bond franchise, but Amazon MGM Studios will now make all of the creative decisions, with the Broccolis' blessing (via Instapundit):

The Bond films were launched by Albert "Cubby" Broccoli in 1962, before his daughter and stepson took over.

The pair will now give creative control to Amazon MGM Studios, which was formed when Amazon bought Bond's parent studio in 2022.

The new deal comes after mounting speculation about the fate of the British spy, four years after his last outing in No Time to Die, which was also Daniel Craig's final appearance in the role.

Amazon will now decide which actor will take over the famous character, but there is still no timescale for when that that will happen or when the next film will be made.

The good news for Bond fans is that this guarantees that the franchise will continue. The potential bad news for Bond fans is that ... the franchise will continue. Amazon doesn't have the greatest track record when it comes to retaining the canon and spirit of intellectual properties that come their way, especially those from an era where wokery doesn't play a role.

Take for example Rings of Power, which John warned in its first season looked like a mediocrity that had discarded JRR Tolkien's sensibilities. The issue wasn't so much Amazon's attempts at DEI, which John noted wasn't all that troublesome, but that the writers clearly didn't know the canon very well. That led to a number of complaints from Tolkien fans about insipid story lines, including last season's attempts to make the Orcs into families. 

Er ... wut?

Orcs just want a safe place to raise their kids, be evil, and practice their corrupted form of life in peace.#TheRingsOfPower pic.twitter.com/KTYGCZA2if

— Nerdrotic (@Nerdrotics) August 29, 2024

Jack Butler held this up as evidence of 'sacrilege' last fall:

The rest of it is full of what Patrick McKay, one of the show-runners, euphemistically called “discovery,” which is “one of the joys of creation,” as he put it in an interview with Deadline. What he means by “discovery” is “making things up.” And it turns out that the people behind Rings of Power are not as good at that as Tolkien was. Some of their inventions can be interesting, such as the almost Stranger Things–esque manner (to borrow a friend’s comparison) in which Sauron survived an apparent demise in a prior guise, which is shown in the opening moments of the season. But this moment is, again, only possible because of something Rings of Power has made up: Adar (Joseph Mawle in season one, Sam Hazeldine in season two), one of the first elves to become an orc, who contests with Sauron for leadership of the forces of evil. (Something tells me this Adar fellow is not long for Middle-earth.)

There are also awkward mash-ups of invention with superficial lore fidelity. Isildur (Maxim Baldry) is lost in Mordor? Hey, Shelob ends up there, doesn’t she? Let’s have them fight. Hey, eagles are a thing, right? Let’s have one show up in Númenor for a few seconds, as an omen that is drastically misinterpreted by those who see it in a way that exacerbates the island’s ongoing political tensions. Hey, Tolkien sometimes hints that orcs are, for example, scared of the Nazgûl, right? They must be more human than we give them credit, so let’s provide a bizarre and (I hope!) pointless glimpse of an orc family. Maybe these moments were meant as fan service (along with forced callbacks to Jackson’s trilogy). As executed, however, they’re sacrilege.

If you prefer a more direct and unvarnished critique, the Critical Drinker provided it a few months ago:

Can't wait for CD's take on today's news. He might end up drinking himself into a stupor.

All of this takes place in the context of the search for a new 007. Daniel Craig aged out of the role gracefully, after offering perhaps the best version of a rebooted Bond since Sean Connery hung up his license to kill (and went on to much better performances as a result). When Craig announced his intention to retire, the woke activists began suggesting a black Bond, a female Bond, a black female Bond, a South Asian non-binary Bond ... you get the idea. (I still think Idris Elba would have made a great Bond, because he's a fine actor with a dynamic screen presence.)

These days, however, the pressure to make those choices may be ebbing, even in Hollywood. The problem, however, isn't so much DEI in casting than mediocrity in writing. That can express itself through casting, too, with writers needing a crutch to tell stories, but it's really the stories and the dialogue that matter. Disney stinks on ice in those areas because of their obsession with overlaying contemporary cultural 'sensitivities' onto fantasy properties. The Bond franchise isn't a fantasy property, but the mediocre execution of a slam-dunk IP like Tolkien doesn't bode well for 007 either. Perhaps the feature-film format will force better discipline on writing and execution, but ... how well is that working out for the Marvel Cinematic Universe these days?

Like I said, the good news is that this guarantees at least one new Bond adventure in the future. We'll have to see whether the Broccolis just gave Amazon a license to kill.