The battle to save James Bond from becoming slop
The Global Story
BBC
3.8 • 667 Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Casting is finally underway for a new James Bond. But why has it taken five years to even begin the search?
Since Daniel Craig retired as Bond in 2021, there have been reports of a behind-the-scenes David and Goliath battle between the family business which has held creative control of the franchise since the 1960s and its new owners, Amazon. It is now up to Jeff Bezos’s tech giant to decide who will play 007 – and how to run the series.
In an era when Hollywood studios are desperate to eke out every last dollar from movie franchises, can James Bond retain its mystique and appeal to a new generation of cinema goers?
We speak to Wall Street Journal enterprise reporter Erich Schwartzel.
Producer: Lucy Pawle and Xandra Ellin
Sound engineer: Travis Evans
Executive producer: James Shield
Senior news editor: China Collins
(Photo: Daniel Craig at the world premiere of the Bond film, No Time to Die, London, 28 September, 2021 Credit: Neil Hall/European Pressphoto Agency)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.3 | Casting is finally underway to find a new James Bond, |
| 0:10.6 | and the next actor to play him could make or break the future of the film series. |
| 0:16.2 | But why is it taken five years to even start looking for a replacement bond? |
| 0:22.4 | Even if you're not into Bond films, stick with us, because today's episode is really about |
| 0:28.3 | something bigger. It's a David and Goliath story about what happens when an old-school |
| 0:35.6 | family business clashes with a tech giant. |
| 0:40.1 | And its stake is a question about what movies are supposed to be. |
| 0:45.7 | Is there still space left in them for cultivated mystery and rarity? |
| 0:52.1 | Or should we accept that showbiz these days |
| 0:54.3 | is about extracting every penny from a piece of intellectual property? |
| 1:00.9 | From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redmond in London, |
| 1:04.3 | and today on the global story, |
| 1:07.1 | the battle to save James Bond from becoming slop. |
| 1:19.4 | Thank you. the battle to save James Bond from becoming slop. I love James Bond films. |
| 1:21.4 | I love watching The Spy Who Loved Me on Christmas Day with my family |
| 1:25.1 | when everyone slumped on the sofa. |
| 1:27.3 | I love that character, Jaws, the henchman who's got those metal teeth. |
| 1:31.0 | I love all that old stuff. |
| 1:32.6 | But if James Bond is going to survive, he needs a new generation of fans. |
| 1:37.6 | And we're going to start today's episode by speaking to one of the members of our team who has a James Bond secret. |
| 1:44.1 | So Zandra Ellen, you'll very often hear her name in the credits of this show. |
... |
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