So, most people who know me personally know I'm a huge James Bond fan. I got into the series via the N64 games goldeneye and the world is not enough and corresponding movies, and was a rather die hard fan in my teenage years in particular. I will say my zeal for it moderated over time, as the zeitgeist moved onto the craig era, and then video games declined in quality and eventually stopped being produced, but there was a time in my life that I was as zealous for the series as I am for Rammstein musically.
With that said, like many fans, I kind of had a mixed view on the Craig films. Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Skyfall were all really good, but then Spectre was kind of controversial due to how they changed characters vs the old 1960s version of events. And then with No Time To Die, the series REALLY went off the rails. Spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it but it has been out for a few years now so if you didn't watch it it's kind of your own fault at this point, but they gave Bond a family and then killed him off.
Honestly, even though I largely liked the movie, I kind of hated the ending. Because, really? It was so non canonical. In the OG 1960s version of the movies, Bond gets married, Blofeld kills his wife, and then Bond gets revenge in the next film before moving on and just being the cold womanizer who clearly shows no emotional attachment toward women. In a sense, it was designed to be a character flaw, with the casino royale with vesper thing happening off screen prior to Dr. No, and his wife dying killing any humanity he had left. I know Craig was a reboot and all, but yeah, to have it become its own self contained arc with such a tragic ending was a bit jarring and yeah, I kinda disliked it A LOT and kinda thought it was almost blasphemy to me.
There has been a lot of debate over where Bond went next. Honestly, there was a precedent in the book source material for No Time to Die. Bond's final confrontation of blofeld in a similar Japanese castle setting that No Time to Die took place in did end with bond being presumably dead, but he did kinda survive, and there was one more book after where he basically lost his memory, was captured by the Soviets, brainwashed, and turned against the British government. Had it been up to me, Bond 26 would start with that kind of plot point. Bond isn't really dead, he survived, and then more stuff happens. It wouldn't have been a very clean opening sequence for Bond 26, but it would've been the best writing angle one could approach it from.
Well, unfortunately, now Amazon has bought the series. Yeah, you can't make this up, the guy who looks IRL like villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld basically controls the James Bond series. He's the second most Bond villain like billionaire I can think of, the other being the chainsaw wielding maniac currently cutting away at the federal government in a 1933 German style coup.
And Bond fans are kind of feeling like this is the death of the series as we know it. It's not truly dead, but it's the deal from hell that no one wanted. I personally have issues with it simply because I hate streaming exclusivity and now we'll lose Bond to another fricking streaming service we'll have to pay $10+ a month just to watch. Will we even get DVD releases any more? if not I'm out. But beyond that, Amazon seems to have a bad reputation. When they get creative control of a franchise, they basically ruin it according to sum. They run it into the ground with tons of mediocre spinoffs and mini series that no one wants, poor casting decisions, etc., and yeah.
Like, you gotta understand. The film series has been with EON and the Broccoli family for like 60 years, and now they're just retiring and stepping out of the picture. It's literally the end of an era. And now, people are actually starting to be glad that they killed off Bond in No Time to Die. If it is the end of an era, and Amazon is gonna butcher the series from here on out, it's kinda good they put the old bond out to pasture. It delineates the end of an era from what comes next. And now, we fans can just sleep soundly knowing that the Bond series as we knew it is dead, and that whatever comes next is gonna be something else entirely. It's as if it's gonna be a completely different series now. And many of us old timers don't even have to touch the new stuff with a ten foot pole. We just enjoy the old stuff as it exists, and what happens from there happens.
As such, decisions that at release with NTTD were controversial, and I kinda hated him, but now, a lot of us are happy that Bond went out that way, so that we don't have to suffer what comes next. It was a death with dignity. Let Bezos butcher it all he wants. It's dead to us old time fans now. RIP James Bond, 1962-2021.
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