Will Amazon turn James Bond into a franchise as exhausted as Marvel or Star Wars?

Will James Bond lose his soul like Star Wars with Disney ? The takeover of the most charismatic of spies by Amazon worries Her Majesty's subjects, some of whom wonder if 007 still has a future. After months of a latent war between the historical producers of the films and Amazon, widely reported by the press, the axe fell on Thursday: the American giant will now preside over the destiny of the most famous spy in the world.

And he will do it his way, the Broccoli family - the rights holders - having ceded creative control to him. Enough to raise questions in the homeland of 007: the day after the agreement, The Independent wondered if by taking control of the franchise, Amazon had not "buried" it. For the Times and the Telegraph , James Bond will "never again" be the same.

The fact remains that Amazon's precise intentions for the franchise have not been revealed. "What is certain is that they will want a return on investment," Chloe Preece, a marketing professor at ESCP business school, told AFP. "And to be able to recoup the money spent, they will use the franchise excessively by creating series (spin-offs, prequels, etc.) and derivative products," she suggests.

Jeff Bezos' group bought the legendary MGM studio in 2022 for $8.45 billion (more than €8 billion), but the Broccoli family retained exclusive control over the brand. According to the Times , Amazon reportedly paid another billion dollars to permanently have a free hand. "There's going to be a change in volume," adds Tom Harrington, who works at Enders Analysis, the leading British media and telecoms research and consulting firm. Until now, the Broccoli family had a very "exclusive" vision of the brand. While merchandising was allowed, it remained limited, he emphasizes to AFP.

"It's very likely that Amazon will want to create a galaxy around the brand, a bit like Marvel or Star Wars ," marketing expert Adrian Mediavilla explains to AFP. To do this, it will be necessary to draw on secondary characters and develop new plots. But "the material is there," assures Chloe Preece. And so are the fans. "There is an appetite around the brand, the public is desperately waiting for the next film," she continues. The last one, No Time to Die , dates back to 2021.

But there is a risk: overexploitation of the franchise. Ultimately, this could weaken it. Above all, it will be necessary to "remain faithful to the brand's heritage" around the character imagined seven decades ago by Ian Fleming, underlines Adrian Mediavilla. "The Broccoli have always been very careful. They have always worked with a very tight-knit team who knew the character inside out and chose the director themselves," underlines Chloe Preece. However, like its competitors Netflix or Disney, the Amazon platform works with an armada of screenwriters who, inevitably, come and go. For others, the danger lies elsewhere. British tabloids are worried that James Bond is becoming "woke" .

"If you look at the evolution of the films, you could almost say that the latest ones are 'woke'," says Chloe Preece, for whom the character of Bond played by Daniel Craig has almost nothing in common with the one played by Sean Connery or Roger Moore. The writers have erased his boorish side and his condescending digs at women, to offer in the latest films the image of a slightly more sensitive man. But the big losers could be the movie theaters. All the films in the saga are huge blockbusters. But Amazon could now do without a theatrical release and offer the film directly on Prime, its platform.