You assume the name of the actor will be known by the media. I'm not so sure, but with a launch like that the public reveal of the actor will be an event anyway. If Amazon has a deal with RN from filming the movie the use of the aircraft carrier can be a part of the package. If the aircraft carrier is parked ....... I mean moored in Plymouth or somewhere near London the press won't need more than a day's warning. It's not like they'll say no and refuse to send any journalists. This kind of launch will make James Bond stand out when everyone else has stopped doing it, it will bre spectacular and unique. That's my take on it at least, but I'm no expert.
"Going back to Bond's old Navy days" could mean a lot of things. My assumption would be that Bond's "old Navy days" would reference Bond's experience as a member of the SBS and/or Naval Intelligence not as an officer on a vessel. I have mixed feelings about that as I would not prefer a full bore origin story. I guess a way to deal with Bond's Naval service would be to have it covered in the pre titles sequence with Commander Bond leading a clandestine SBS mission in some remote exotic back water. It could even be a solo mission. After the PTS and titles the time could take a jump to Bond as a "00" albeit young "00". That would be more than enough for me as far as Bond's origin.
Honestly a tweet of an unknown actor in a tuxedo would get more traction than a press launch with an unknown actor. It's less money and more exposure. Simply put the old way of launching an actor was the "Eon" way, I think Amazon will want to modernise the launch and all the histrionics around Craig's launch actually played against them in the end. The tabloids savaged Craig's launch and if Broccoli et al had to do it again in 2005, I'm certain they would have ditched that opening as it got everything off on the wrong foot.
Doing one thing wouldn't exclude the other, would it? In fact I'm pretty sure a lot of people would mention the event in a tweet or two if the next Bond actor was revealed on an aircraft carrier! 😂 I simply find it very hard to believe a Tweet alone could generate as much traction as making the same news public on an aircraft carrier in front of the world press. Yes, social media is a lot more important now than in 2006, but this news would be spread on social media too. In fact Amazon would be wise to invite people like Calvin Dyson, our own David Zaritsky and other social media content creators to the press launch.
Howard B: It may very well be that Bond's navy days in Bond26 will mostly be a SBS raid in the PTS. But the raid could end with Bond and the SBS being picked up by helicopters and flown to an aircraft carrier. Or someone from MI6 could visit a naval base after the PTS to evaluate Bond. There are many ways to do this.
They did embrace the Bond influencers with the NTTD launch: I remember Mr Zaritsky got to do a zoom interview in the press junket with members of the cast including Craig. I expect MGM would continue that: they probably handled the publicity and launch as they're the distributors.
I hope they do still do the old fashioned press launch of the new actor, it's fun and I think having the actor and producers take questions creates more stories for the news outlets.
Amazon are already starting to annoy people. The films are back on Amazon Prime to watch on subscription, but everyone is kicking off because of the thumbnails. They've photoshopped Bond's gun out of the thumbnails, leaving the actors in awkward positions.
It's stupid! The shots of Bond with his Walther in his hand,are iconic and most of the time,Bond kills in self defence.
Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?"
I just watched Tomorrow Never Dies. I don't think anything was edited out. Even the hi-yah sound Wai Lin makes that some people might find cringy was left in.
Some people would complain even if you hang them with a new rope
“Important” is a stretch, sure, but it’s interesting in that lots of folks in Bond fandom laid the gun reticence at Eon’s feet and, well, Eon never shied away from a gun on a poster.
Seeing how the gun is front and center on the video game promos, maybe it’s nothing at all, but sure is a curious choice to think a bunch of thumbnails of middle-aged men with their hands in their pockets or their arms folded was gonna get them clicks.
“Important” is a stretch, sure, but it’s interesting in that lots of folks in Bond fandom laid the gun reticence at Eon’s feet and, well, Eon never shied away from a gun on a poster.
Well neither have MGM yet: these aren't really posters. As you say there's been a few incidences of guns disappearing over the years under Eon: that Cypher phone game had Bond using a stun gun and gun-less 007 logos; there's been a few appearances of a gun-less 007 logo over the years, and the blue style guide which was used for merch around the release of DAD over 20 years ago featured a gun-less logo and a Bond silhouette with no gun (and arguably because there was no social media to try and whip up mass offence over things like this, it just came and went with no comment). And the gun logo was on every one of those new key visuals.
So yeah, it's not down to just Eon, but as it happens occasionally there must be a reason for it. Maybe it's sensitivity for the gun culture in the US, maybe different territories around the world have different rules on TV guns and it's easier to just create one set of global artwork for this, who knows (and it is a choice to remove the guns: the new replacement set of images have the gun digitally removed from the Skyfall image). But they are only thumbnails on a streaming service, I just can't get excited about it.
I wonder if it is that the guns are actual products, like a Walther PPK or a Sig Sauer P226 and so some idiot in Amazon has decided that those firms were getting free advertising?
It is the one product, indelibly linked to Bond and getting promotion and brand value from it, the maker of which -as far as I'm aware- doesn't contribute towards the films' cost at all!
You might be on to something there. Maybe Bond will have a new pistol in Bond 26 (provided the manufacturer pays up). While the PPK is beautiful and iconic, I wouldn't mind Bond using a different more contemporary concealed carry pistol in 26.
My only caveats would be that the new pistol is realistically compact and concealable, and looks good.
Nothing, pretty much. I wonder if anything is happening. Knight said he hadn't started when he was announced and Villeneuve won't be involved until after Dune 3 which could be its December 2026 release date. I see on Knight's IMDB he is penning a 10 episode WWII mini-series for Ridley Scott's Scott Free outfit and a TV series about Ferrari which are both stated to be in "pre-production". I could imagine Knight not starting on the Bond26 script until next year.
Hopefully Knight at least has a concept and some kind of framework work for a narrative as one would think he would have had to come to the new producers with something...unless Heyman just called up Knight and said "Hey Stevie, you wanna write the next Bond film?" and Knight said, "Sure mate, love to". Heyman: "That's grand, any ideas?" Knight: "Hmm, I'll have to think on that and get back to you, cheers".
The film industry trade papers reported that both Villeneuve and Knight had a 'pitch,' that's the word they used, when they met with Pascal and Heyman when they were in talks to take on those roles. Baz Bamigboye's recent article claimed that Bond26 would be an origin story. Maybe that was the pitch? I think Pascal and Heyman were great choices and Knight's career is impressive and Villeneuve has been a fan favourite for some time and a past rumoured director candidate. For now, I think we can all be very positive about what has happened.
I had a look at David Arnold's IMDB and he doesn't have any upcoming projects. Hopefully, as DA composed the scores for two of Pascal's three Bond's he's a strong candidate. Please no Hans Zimmer. He clearly got a strong steer with NTTD's score but he still squeezed in his 'sound' in some places like for the island attack. I'd just walked out of a screening of the Dark Knight when a pal messaged me the link to the leaked soundtrack and the Zimmer 'sound' was clearly there, and it's not a Bond 'sound' for me.
Zimmer seems more likely than Arnold to me, given his involvement on Villeneuve's Dune films. Arnold seems to have more or less retired from movies; whether he'd make an exception for Bond is another thing of course, I think he's said something along those lines at some point. Whether the absence of Broccolis would make a difference is one thing, often when people stop doing Hollywood stuff it's because they get tired of all of the studio red tape, and you'd imagine the Brocs would have insulated against that to some extent.
Arnold would be my first choice by miles. If it were to end up being Zimmer I'd be ok with it and given Villeneuve directing I agree that Zimmer would logically be the front runner. However, if Villeneuve really wants to capture the Bond "Sound" Arnold's the guy.
I'm watching Calvin Dyson's new video about the rumours that Bond26 will be about the potential threat of Artificial Intelligence. I don't think having AI be the main threat is a good idea, but as Calvin says we can imagine the villain, MI6 or both using AI as a tool or "henchman". but even though MI Final Reckoning will be a few years into the past when Bond26 is released I imagine those two movies will still be the most tentpole recent action spy movies at that time. I hope they wait a few movies before using AI as a major plot device. It's not like AI will be gone by the 2030's, is it?
Instead Amazon should look at other topical potential threats to focus on. Unlike during Brosnan and Craig's tenures a war between major power is a real worry these days. Having Bond prevent a major war between NATO and Russia or China is classical Bond, but it hasn't been done since OP in 1983. People who saw OP in the cinema are at least in their 50s now and the plot line would actually feel fresh and topical to many people.
Two other topics that are linked to this is hybrid warfare and the weakening of liberal democracy. Bond could focus on that threat. Sabotage, assassinations. espionage would fit nicely in a Bond film.
Finally the economic and political power of multi-billionaires is a hot topic. I wonder of anyone in Amazon knows any of those billionaires? 😉Mega-rich villains is again classic James Bond, but it can be argued that the last Bond villain where the wealth of the villain was focused on was DAD. The villains of the Craig years were far from poor, but I never saw them as mega-rich like Hugo Drax or Stromberg.
Combine SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (a group of generals decide a president needs to get coup'd out of office) and Nicholas Meyer's big pitch from back in the day, in which Bond realizes the threat is on the side of right, and joins them in their effort. 😛
Doing the evil billionaire thing and trying to make it fresh just because it’s actually relevant nowadays is tricky I think, because Bond has been to that well so many times before. Even if you had it as some kind of social media baron I think it feels a bit naff and too on the nose. I don’t know how you do a new ‘ripped from tomorrow’s headlines’ baddie: I guess AI in some fashion could work although I don’t know how as there’s often just something uncinematic about digital threats; I remember someone here saying maybe a Wagner Group-style private army plot could work.
Comments
You assume the name of the actor will be known by the media. I'm not so sure, but with a launch like that the public reveal of the actor will be an event anyway. If Amazon has a deal with RN from filming the movie the use of the aircraft carrier can be a part of the package. If the aircraft carrier is parked ....... I mean moored in Plymouth or somewhere near London the press won't need more than a day's warning. It's not like they'll say no and refuse to send any journalists. This kind of launch will make James Bond stand out when everyone else has stopped doing it, it will bre spectacular and unique. That's my take on it at least, but I'm no expert.
"Going back to Bond's old Navy days" could mean a lot of things. My assumption would be that Bond's "old Navy days" would reference Bond's experience as a member of the SBS and/or Naval Intelligence not as an officer on a vessel. I have mixed feelings about that as I would not prefer a full bore origin story. I guess a way to deal with Bond's Naval service would be to have it covered in the pre titles sequence with Commander Bond leading a clandestine SBS mission in some remote exotic back water. It could even be a solo mission. After the PTS and titles the time could take a jump to Bond as a "00" albeit young "00". That would be more than enough for me as far as Bond's origin.
Honestly a tweet of an unknown actor in a tuxedo would get more traction than a press launch with an unknown actor. It's less money and more exposure. Simply put the old way of launching an actor was the "Eon" way, I think Amazon will want to modernise the launch and all the histrionics around Craig's launch actually played against them in the end. The tabloids savaged Craig's launch and if Broccoli et al had to do it again in 2005, I'm certain they would have ditched that opening as it got everything off on the wrong foot.
Doing one thing wouldn't exclude the other, would it? In fact I'm pretty sure a lot of people would mention the event in a tweet or two if the next Bond actor was revealed on an aircraft carrier! 😂 I simply find it very hard to believe a Tweet alone could generate as much traction as making the same news public on an aircraft carrier in front of the world press. Yes, social media is a lot more important now than in 2006, but this news would be spread on social media too. In fact Amazon would be wise to invite people like Calvin Dyson, our own David Zaritsky and other social media content creators to the press launch.
Howard B: It may very well be that Bond's navy days in Bond26 will mostly be a SBS raid in the PTS. But the raid could end with Bond and the SBS being picked up by helicopters and flown to an aircraft carrier. Or someone from MI6 could visit a naval base after the PTS to evaluate Bond. There are many ways to do this.
They did embrace the Bond influencers with the NTTD launch: I remember Mr Zaritsky got to do a zoom interview in the press junket with members of the cast including Craig. I expect MGM would continue that: they probably handled the publicity and launch as they're the distributors.
I hope they do still do the old fashioned press launch of the new actor, it's fun and I think having the actor and producers take questions creates more stories for the news outlets.
Jacob Elordi promoted as Amazon favourite despite not being British or unknown.
https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2025/9/30/amazonmgm-wants-jacob-elordi-to-play-james-bond
Amazon are already starting to annoy people. The films are back on Amazon Prime to watch on subscription, but everyone is kicking off because of the thumbnails. They've photoshopped Bond's gun out of the thumbnails, leaving the actors in awkward positions.
It's stupid! The shots of Bond with his Walther in his hand,are iconic and most of the time,Bond kills in self defence.
" I don't listen to hip hop!"
It's stupid, but as long as they don't mess with the movies themselves I don't mind that much.
Yeah I can’t get as excited about it as folks on Twitter. It’s not important.
I just watched Tomorrow Never Dies. I don't think anything was edited out. Even the hi-yah sound Wai Lin makes that some people might find cringy was left in.
“Important” is a stretch, sure, but it’s interesting in that lots of folks in Bond fandom laid the gun reticence at Eon’s feet and, well, Eon never shied away from a gun on a poster.
Seeing how the gun is front and center on the video game promos, maybe it’s nothing at all, but sure is a curious choice to think a bunch of thumbnails of middle-aged men with their hands in their pockets or their arms folded was gonna get them clicks.
“Important” is a stretch, sure, but it’s interesting in that lots of folks in Bond fandom laid the gun reticence at Eon’s feet and, well, Eon never shied away from a gun on a poster.
Well neither have MGM yet: these aren't really posters. As you say there's been a few incidences of guns disappearing over the years under Eon: that Cypher phone game had Bond using a stun gun and gun-less 007 logos; there's been a few appearances of a gun-less 007 logo over the years, and the blue style guide which was used for merch around the release of DAD over 20 years ago featured a gun-less logo and a Bond silhouette with no gun (and arguably because there was no social media to try and whip up mass offence over things like this, it just came and went with no comment). And the gun logo was on every one of those new key visuals.
So yeah, it's not down to just Eon, but as it happens occasionally there must be a reason for it. Maybe it's sensitivity for the gun culture in the US, maybe different territories around the world have different rules on TV guns and it's easier to just create one set of global artwork for this, who knows (and it is a choice to remove the guns: the new replacement set of images have the gun digitally removed from the Skyfall image). But they are only thumbnails on a streaming service, I just can't get excited about it.
It's being reported that the gunless images have been taken down by Amazon. All pretty bizarre of you ask me.
Yeah they replaced them a couple of days ago, as I mentioned. They're still gunless.
But are the guns removed from the new pictures or did Amazon simply use photos that never had guns in them to begin with this time?
Mostly pics without to start with, although as I mentioned, the Skyfall one has had its gun digitally removed.
I wonder if it is that the guns are actual products, like a Walther PPK or a Sig Sauer P226 and so some idiot in Amazon has decided that those firms were getting free advertising?
It is the one product, indelibly linked to Bond and getting promotion and brand value from it, the maker of which -as far as I'm aware- doesn't contribute towards the films' cost at all!
In that case Amazon would've removed the wrist watches too.
You might be on to something there. Maybe Bond will have a new pistol in Bond 26 (provided the manufacturer pays up). While the PPK is beautiful and iconic, I wouldn't mind Bond using a different more contemporary concealed carry pistol in 26.
My only caveats would be that the new pistol is realistically compact and concealable, and looks good.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gqnw5r29ro
Heyman talks to BBC, but says nothing concrete.
Nothing, pretty much. I wonder if anything is happening. Knight said he hadn't started when he was announced and Villeneuve won't be involved until after Dune 3 which could be its December 2026 release date. I see on Knight's IMDB he is penning a 10 episode WWII mini-series for Ridley Scott's Scott Free outfit and a TV series about Ferrari which are both stated to be in "pre-production". I could imagine Knight not starting on the Bond26 script until next year.
I had hoped Knight would start sooner.
Hopefully Knight at least has a concept and some kind of framework work for a narrative as one would think he would have had to come to the new producers with something...unless Heyman just called up Knight and said "Hey Stevie, you wanna write the next Bond film?" and Knight said, "Sure mate, love to". Heyman: "That's grand, any ideas?" Knight: "Hmm, I'll have to think on that and get back to you, cheers".
The film industry trade papers reported that both Villeneuve and Knight had a 'pitch,' that's the word they used, when they met with Pascal and Heyman when they were in talks to take on those roles. Baz Bamigboye's recent article claimed that Bond26 would be an origin story. Maybe that was the pitch? I think Pascal and Heyman were great choices and Knight's career is impressive and Villeneuve has been a fan favourite for some time and a past rumoured director candidate. For now, I think we can all be very positive about what has happened.
I had a look at David Arnold's IMDB and he doesn't have any upcoming projects. Hopefully, as DA composed the scores for two of Pascal's three Bond's he's a strong candidate. Please no Hans Zimmer. He clearly got a strong steer with NTTD's score but he still squeezed in his 'sound' in some places like for the island attack. I'd just walked out of a screening of the Dark Knight when a pal messaged me the link to the leaked soundtrack and the Zimmer 'sound' was clearly there, and it's not a Bond 'sound' for me.
Zimmer seems more likely than Arnold to me, given his involvement on Villeneuve's Dune films. Arnold seems to have more or less retired from movies; whether he'd make an exception for Bond is another thing of course, I think he's said something along those lines at some point. Whether the absence of Broccolis would make a difference is one thing, often when people stop doing Hollywood stuff it's because they get tired of all of the studio red tape, and you'd imagine the Brocs would have insulated against that to some extent.
Arnold would be my first choice by miles. If it were to end up being Zimmer I'd be ok with it and given Villeneuve directing I agree that Zimmer would logically be the front runner. However, if Villeneuve really wants to capture the Bond "Sound" Arnold's the guy.
I'm watching Calvin Dyson's new video about the rumours that Bond26 will be about the potential threat of Artificial Intelligence. I don't think having AI be the main threat is a good idea, but as Calvin says we can imagine the villain, MI6 or both using AI as a tool or "henchman". but even though MI Final Reckoning will be a few years into the past when Bond26 is released I imagine those two movies will still be the most tentpole recent action spy movies at that time. I hope they wait a few movies before using AI as a major plot device. It's not like AI will be gone by the 2030's, is it?
Instead Amazon should look at other topical potential threats to focus on. Unlike during Brosnan and Craig's tenures a war between major power is a real worry these days. Having Bond prevent a major war between NATO and Russia or China is classical Bond, but it hasn't been done since OP in 1983. People who saw OP in the cinema are at least in their 50s now and the plot line would actually feel fresh and topical to many people.
Two other topics that are linked to this is hybrid warfare and the weakening of liberal democracy. Bond could focus on that threat. Sabotage, assassinations. espionage would fit nicely in a Bond film.
Finally the economic and political power of multi-billionaires is a hot topic. I wonder of anyone in Amazon knows any of those billionaires? 😉Mega-rich villains is again classic James Bond, but it can be argued that the last Bond villain where the wealth of the villain was focused on was DAD. The villains of the Craig years were far from poor, but I never saw them as mega-rich like Hugo Drax or Stromberg.
What do you think?
Combine SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (a group of generals decide a president needs to get coup'd out of office) and Nicholas Meyer's big pitch from back in the day, in which Bond realizes the threat is on the side of right, and joins them in their effort. 😛
Heh, fun though that would be, somehow I can’t imagine they’d go there! Imagine the tariffs the UK would get as a punishment!!
Bond realising the baddie is actually a goodie is quite good though, and obviously Risico/FYEO did that, but I think it could happen again.
Doing the evil billionaire thing and trying to make it fresh just because it’s actually relevant nowadays is tricky I think, because Bond has been to that well so many times before. Even if you had it as some kind of social media baron I think it feels a bit naff and too on the nose. I don’t know how you do a new ‘ripped from tomorrow’s headlines’ baddie: I guess AI in some fashion could work although I don’t know how as there’s often just something uncinematic about digital threats; I remember someone here saying maybe a Wagner Group-style private army plot could work.