By Mark Seavy  

With Amazon having gained creative control of the James Bond franchise, what new doors might open in brand licensing?  

It was announced last week that the Broccoli family was ceding creative control to Amazon, following the retail and entertainment giant’s purchase of Bond distributor MGM three years ago. Now, many industry executives are wondering how this shift will change the dynamics and strategy behind a franchise that has produced 25 theatrical films since the first Bond movie, Dr. No, was released in 1962. 

If franchises like Star Wars and Marvel can be looked to as a model, it’s possible the Bond IP could spawn multiple series for Amazon’s Prime Video streamer. As a result, countless characters and plot lines that have for years been secondary in the film franchise could take center stage both in terms of new content and in brand licensing. 

Amazon’s Prime Video has been the home for Bond’s film catalog since the online giant paid $8.5 billion to acquire MGM Studios in 2022. Since then, there’s been speculation that Amazon has been working to gain creative control given that a new Bond film hasn’t been released since 2021’s No Time to Die. Even licensed videogames, which have been part of the franchise since 1983, have been on hold. Developer IO Interactive has been working on the gaming title Project 007, but no release date has been set. A new videogame hasn’t been released since Activision’s 007 Legends in 2012. 

“How will the franchise change and does it become similar to what happened with Star Wars, Marvel, and others?” said Jed Ferdinand, a Partner and Co-Chair of the IP Group at Meister Seelig & Fein. “With those, you have spin-offs and derivatives and that might be positive because you would [gain] lots of interesting new streaming series and films. There could be new exploitations of the property that are positive and lead to new characters and licensing opportunities, because suddenly even those that were secondary come front and center.” 

That has been very much the case with Star Wars and Marvel. The former was relatively new to streaming when the original series The Mandalorian was released on Disney+ in 2019 featuring the force-sensitive child Grogu that became a licensing sensation with Hasbro’s “Baby Yoda” plush.  

Similarly, Marvel’s first streaming series, Daredevil, which was released in 2015 on Netflix, paved the way for multiple licensing deals across the studio’s IP. And Warner Bros. Discovery is pouring cash into this year’s Superman film, which is meant to kickstart a new DC Comics IP universe. Warner Bros. Discovery has stated that its goal is to make two DC live-action films and one animated movie annually, along with two animated series for the Max streaming service. 

“Cementing Bond could pay for this transaction multiple times over in success,” LightShed Ventures analyst Rich Greenfield told The Hollywood Reporter. “Can they make Bond the next Marvel? Who knows. Bond has always been so tightly controlled. Sporadic movies, there’s never been a TV series, there isn’t [a] theme park world built around it. How can you create the world of Bond?” 

How this change in IP control will impact existing Bond licensees also remains to be seen. The franchise has never been over-licensed and its consumer products program typically focused on theatrical releases.  

Coty gained access to the Bond 007 license in buying a portion of Proctor & Gamble’s fragrance business in 2016, and fragrance retailer Floris of London launched a new No. 007 Eau De Parfum in 2022 to mark the 60th anniversary of the film franchise. Additionally, American fashion designer Tom Ford provided tailoring, shirts, and ties for James Bond in the 2012 film Skyfall. The suits were custom-made for actor Daniel Craig’s James Bond character. 

And while license terms may change, licensees with a franchise deal could well be covered for any new content. Each Bond film to date has had its own title so that a licensee can develop product from the back catalog as well as any new film or TV series produced during the term on their agreement, said Russell Binder, Founding Partner at Striker Entertainment. Amazon, however, is expected to focus licensing on new content as well as each film’s significant anniversaries, licensing executives said. 

“You could well see a spinoff for some of the female characters or the villains because there is so much untapped potential there in terms of development, since so much has been singularly focused on Bond himself,” Ferdinand said.