The British tabloids would like us to believe that “Bond 26” is just around the corner, with various rumors about directors and casting (new names being touted as frontrunners every couple of months) making the rounds online. However, producers from EON, the stewards of the James Bond franchise, have suggested that things aren’t coming together as quickly as rumblings would indicate, and producer Barbara Broccoli calls the process “a big road ahead” while speaking with The Guardian to promote their upcoming Amazon game show series “007 Road To A Million.”
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The Bond franchise executives haven’t even begun the process of “modernizing the franchise,” which would tell us that we won’t be getting “Bond 26” anytime soon, mentioning a development timeline of 3-4 years. In theory, we might not see that next installment on the big screen until 2026-2028, and don’t expect to see any franchise spinoffs for television/streaming beyond this recent reality project.
“Our focus is making the feature films. When we get going on a Bond movie, it takes our full attention for three or four years, so that’s our focus,” Broccoli said when asked about more TV spinoffs being on the horizon and hinting toward a timeline of how long this process could take. “We make the Bond movies for the big theatrical screen, and everything about the Bond movies is for audiences to see around the world on that format, so we’ve not wanted to do television,” she added.
Broccoli commented that tackling a different kind of James Bond isn’t new for them, “I go back to ‘GoldenEye’ when everyone was saying ‘the cold war is over, the wall is over, Bond is dead, no need for Bond, the whole world’s at peace and now there’s no villains’ – and boy was that wrong! Daniel [Craig] gave us the ability to mine the emotional life of the character, and also, the world was ready for it. I think these movies reflect the time they are in, and there’s a big, big road ahead reinventing it for the next chapter, and we haven’t even begun with that.”
What exactly that new Bond will look like and who will play that incarnation has yet to be officially determined from these comments from Broccoli, despite previous reports that Aaron Taylor-Johnson (“Kraven The Hunter”) was being courted. That could ultimately shake out to be true, but it seems way too early to be sure of things. This comes following comments from director Matthew Vaughn (“Layer Cake”), who recently poured cold water on the rumor he was in the mix to direct the next installment by stating he’d have a better shot at playing James Bond than directing.
So, it would give us the impression of being extremely patient with how long it’ll actually take to get into a place where EON and MGM/Amazon are happy with a version that could end up being the next stage of the Bond franchise. Whoever lands the role of the infamous British spy, the new actor would be expected to play 007 for the next 5-10 years (If not longer).