I just came across this Youtube video speculating about the future of the James Bond franchise. It’s quite interesting and fairly detailed, and worth a watch for anyone interested in the future of film’s greatest series. As many people are now noting, we’re into by far the longest gap ever between Bond films, and a new one is certainly overdue. As the video explains, the reasons for this depressing pause are quite complex, mostly having to do with tensions between Amazon and EON. Yet what it touches upon but doesn’t quite go into is the fact that Bond films are fundamentally cinematic, and these days, since the rise of online streaming, we don’t go to the cinema to watch films any more. The release of a new Bond film used to be a big cultural event: we used to watch royalty go to the premiere on the news; personally, I used to make an effort to arrange to go to see new Bond films with my friend Charlotte.

These days, though, we just watch films on our computers and mobile phones. Consuming film has become far more casual and less reverent. Instead of making an effort to go out to the cinema, now we just pop a film on our computer screens, often letting it run in the background. I have to wonder, can a phenomenon as fundamentally cinematic as Bond survive this new landscape? Imagine watching one of the awesome, classic James Bond action scenes or car chases on a tiny mobile phone screen – it just wouldn’t work! Thus, as loathe as I am to say it, I don’t see how something as quintessentially cinematic as Bond can survive in this new era, and think it might be time he is put to rest. As I wrote here a couple of weeks ago, rather than try to drag the franchise out and fit Bond into this new online, post-COVID media landscape, it may now be wiser to consign the character to history.