Bond 26: Injecting a Little Reality into the Conversation

As Christopher Marc just remarked over at The Playlist, while "British tabloids would like us to believe that 'Bond 26' is just around the corner" (citing their endless rumor-mongering), Barbara Broccoli, speaking to the Guardian to promote Amazon Prime Video's reality show "007: Road to a Million," acknowledged that "When we get going on a Bond movie it takes our full attention for three or four years so that’s our focus."

In the wake of the remark--as an actual public statement from someone in the know, much more meaningful than what the entertainment press has generally exploited for the purpose of keeping up chatter about the franchise--some have considered the implication that it will be that length of time from now before a Bond film is ready for audiences. In other words, rather than 2025, one might do better to think 2027--or even 2028--or perhaps later than that.

Having spent a long time looking at the difficulties involved in keeping the Bond franchise going--and the upheaval in the film market today--even 2027 seems so far away as to represent possibly a different cinematic scene altogether from the one we know.