It's been over three years since No Time to Die ended Daniel Craig's tenure as James Bond - with the character's death, no less - and we're seemingly no closer to seeing 007 return.
The franchise is a guaranteed money-maker but, as some fans have theorised, Amazon's purchase of MGM for a massive $6.5 billion is causing major problems for both them and longtime franchise producer Barbara Broccoli.
While the Bond franchise falls under the MGM umbrella, Broccoli has a huge amount of creative control and, for the past three decades, her family have decided when a new movie goes into production (she inherited the property from her father Albert "Cubby" Broccoli).
According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal (via ActioNewz.com), "[Broccoli] has told friends she doesn’t trust algorithm-centric Amazon with a character she helped to mythologize through big-screen storytelling and gut instinct. This fall, she characterized the status of a new movie in dire terms - no script, no story and no new Bond."
In conversations with friends, she's allegedly expressed her thoughts on Amazon by bluntly saying, "These people are f***ing idiots."
The issue is that the company needs Broccoli to decide on the direction of the franchise moving forward; however, she doesn't want to make a new movie with the company. At the heart of that is the fact Amazon wants an MCU-style shared world of movies and TV shows, rapidly expanding the property and making it as profitable as possible.
As Bond's gatekeeper, Broccoli wants to keep the character in theaters and isn't looking to bring the secret agent into the world of streaming.
As the site's report explains, "Broccoli has complained that Amazon isn’t a good home for Bond, since the company’s core business is selling everything from toilet paper to vacuums - a perspective Amazon executives find unfair. But since she makes the creative calls that come first—script, casting, story - Broccoli can hold Bond hostage from Amazon for as long as she sees fit."
This comes after rumblings, first published by The Hollywood Reporter, that Kraven the Hunter star Aaron Taylor-Johnson is no longer in the mix to play the next James Bond. Instead, a likely new contender has emerged in The Crown and Challengers star Josh O'Connor.
At this point, it doesn't sound like anyone will be signing up to star in another movie starring the iconic Sir Ian Fleming creation as there's clearly an impasse that's going to require some major negotiations.
Amazon won't be giving up the rights any time soon, that's for sure, so Broccoli may have to come to terms with the fact MGM has new owners unless she's happy keeping Bond on the shelf for the foreseeable future.
As always, keep checking back here for updates on Bond's big screen future as we have them.